ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression of astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1) and its clinical pathological features in uveal melanoma.Methods Paraffm tissue specimens of 50 patients (50 eyes) with confirmed diagnosis of uveal melanoma (UM) were collected as experimental group,and samples from 11 patients (11 eyes) who underwent ocular excision due to trauma,still with largely intact uveal tissue,were selected as control group in the Department of Ophthalmology of Beijing Tongren Hospital from January 2013 to May 2017.Then the expression of AEG-1 in paraffm-embedded specimens was detected by immunohistochemical methods,and the correlation of AEG-1 expression with the clinical pathological data was analyzed.Results AEG-1 protein staining presented accurate pink or red granules,mainly located in UM nucleus,cytoplasm,cell membrane.In the experimental group,negative expression of AEG-1 was in 21 eyes (42.0％),and positive expression was in 29 eyes (58.0％),while AEG-1 were negatively expressed in the control group,and the difference in the two groups was statistically significant (P =0.000),suggesting that the expression of AEG-1 was upregulated in UM.In the experimental group,AEG-1 positive expression rate in patients with clinical pathological risk factors was significantly higher than that in patients without high risk factors (all P ＜ 0.05),and the positive expression rate of AEG-1 in UM with involvement of the ciliary body and iris neovascularization,the maximum diameter of tumor base ＞ 16 mm,tumor thickness ＞ 8 mm,tumor cell type belonging to mixed cell type and epithelioid/mixed cell type,and extra ocular tumor growth was 73.1％,73.9％,95.2％,82.4％,83.3％,74.1％ and 69.4％,respectively.However,there was no significant difference in AEG-1 expression among general clinical data including gender,eyes,age,optic disc involvement,secondary retinal detachment,epithelioid cell type and scleral duct invasion (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion AEG-1 is overexpressed in UM and has a significant correlation with multiple clinical risk factors,suggesting that high expression of AEG-1 may be one of the important prognostic indicators for UM.