Expression of protein kinase C-α and its clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the clinical significance of expression of the protein kinase C-α PKC-α) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and four types of NSCLC cell lines. Methods: PKC-α protein expression was examined by immunohistochemical SP method using tissue microarray technology in 160 cases with tumor tissue including 91 cases at stage I, and 69 cases at stage II-III and 40 cases of adjacent tissues. The mRNA and protein expression of PKC-α in NSCLC cell lines (A 549, A 549-DDP, H460 and H1299) were examined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively. Results: Expression of PKC-α protein was positive in 53.1% (85/ 160) of cancerous tissues and 7.5% (3/40) of adjacent tissues (P < 0.01). But the expression of PKC-α had no significant difference between different types of NSCLC (adenocarcinoma, squamous carcinoma, and bronchioalveolar carcinoma). The positive rate of PKC-α protein was not related with the gender and age of NSCLC patients, but related with TNM staging and lymph node metastasis of NSCLC especially adenocarcinoma (P < 0.05). The expression of PKC-α protein was related with the differentiation degree of adenocarcinoma (P <0. 05), but not with the differentiation degree of squamous carcinoma. PKC-α were expressed in all NSCLC cell lines (A 549, A 549-DDP, H 460, and H 1299) at mRNA and protein level. A 549-DDP cells had the highest expression level of PKC-α. Conclusions: There exists high expression of PKC-α protein in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. The expression of PKC-α protein may play a crucial role in invasion, metastasis and development of NSCLC especially in adenocarcinoma. There is significant difference in the mRNA and protein expression levels of PKC-α in different NSCLC cell lines.