RESUMO
Objective To investigate the expressions of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), Akt and E-cadherin and their clinical significance in thyroid papillary carcinomas.Methods Expressions of PI3K, Akt, and E-cadherin were detected in 62 cases of thyroid papillary carcinomas,30 cases of thyroid goiter and 30 cases of normal thyroid by immunohistochemistry (EnVison),and simultaneously compared with age, sex, tumor size, clinical tumor node metastasis( TNM) stages, and lymph node metastasis in thy-roid papillary carcinomas.Results The expression rate of PI3K, Akt, and E-cadherin was 74.2%(46/62), 66.1%(41/62), 16.1%(10/62),respectively.Expressions of three proteins in thyroid papillary carcinomas were significantly different from those in thyroid goiter and normal thyroid tissues ( P <0.05). The lower positive rates of PI3K and Akt proteins were obtained in the group of stageⅠ~Ⅱthan that in the group of stageⅢ~Ⅳ(χ2 =4.976, P =0.026;χ2 =6.233, P =0.013).Higher positive rates of PI3K and Akt proteins were obtained in the group of lymph-node metastasis than that in group of non-lymph-node metastasis (χ2 =6.675, P =0.010;χ2 =7.511, P =0.006).Higher positive rate of E-cadherin protein was obtained in the group of stage Ⅰ~Ⅱ than that in the group of stage Ⅲ ~Ⅳ (χ2 =6.558, P =0.010 ) .Higher positive rate of E-cadherin proteins was obtained in the group of non-lymph-node metastasis than that in the group of lymph node metastasis(χ2 =5.678, P =0.017).There was significant positive correlation between expressions of PI3K and Akt through Spearman correlation analysis ( r =0.423, P <0.05).PI3K was negatively correlated with E-cadherin with Spearman correlation analysis ( r =-0.527, P <0.05).Akt was also negatively correlated with E-cadherin ( r =-0.417, P <0.05).Conclusions PI3K/Akt pathway might regulate thyroid papillary carcinoma cells proliferation, invasion and metastasis.