Expression of autophagy-related genes Beclin1 and LC3 in ovarian serous carcinoma and their clinical significance / 临床与实验病理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To detect the expression of autophagy-related genes Beclin1 and microtubule-associated protein1 light chain3 (LC3) in ovarian serous carcinoma (OSC) and to analyze the correlations with clinical pathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with OSC.Methods Immunohistochemical staining of MaxVision two-step was performed to detect the expression of Beclin1 and LC3 in the samples from 63 OSC patients and 20 with benign ovarian serous cystadenomas.The relation between Beclin1 and LC3 with the factors influencing the prognosis of OSC was investgated.The expression levels of mRNA and proteins in 10 fresh OSC samples and their corresponding adjacent noncancerous tissues were examined by RT-PCR and Western blot.Results The positive percentage of Beclin1 and LC3 protein in the tissues of OSC was 36.51％ and 33.33％,which was significantly lower than that of 65.00％ and 60.00％ in serous cystadenomas (P =0.025,P =0.034).The expression of Beclin1 in OSC was significantly correlated with clinical FIGO stage and pathological grade (P =0.001,P =0.001),but not associated with age,site,tumor size and lymph node metastasis (P ＞ 0.05).The expression of LC3 protein in OSC was significantly with clinical FIGO stage and lymph node metastasis (P =0.013,P =0.041),but not associated with age,site,tumor size and pathological grade (P ＞ 0.05).There was a positive correlation between Beclin1 and LC3 in OSC (rs =0.373,P =0.03).The levels of Beclin1 and LC3 mRNA (0.581-±0.091,0.650 ±0.090) in 10 fresh OSC were significantly lower than in their adjacent noncancerous tissues (t=8.083,t =6.614,P =0.016,P =0.022).The levels of Beclin1 and LC3 protein in 10 fresh OSCs were significantly lower than in their adjacent noncancerous tissues (P ＜ 0.05).Kaplan-Meier survival analyses revealed that the expression of Beclin1 and LC3 were associated with the patients prognosis (P =0.028 3,P =0.018 5).Conclusion Expression of Beclin1 and LC3 protein is down-regulated in the tissues of OSC which lead to decrease of function of autophagy.The decrease of Beclin1 and LC3 may be associated with the development and prognosis of OSC.