Osteopontin expression on benign and malignant ovarian tumors / 대한산부인과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To understand the expression pattern of osteopontin on various histologic types of ovarian tumors. METHODS: We performed an immunohistochemical study on 90 paraffin embedded tissues including 80 ovarian epithelial tumors and 10 normal ovaries. We also performed a semiquantitative study of osteopontin mRNA on 12 fresh ovarian tumors, 2 normal ovaries and SKOV3 cell line. SAS 8.2 program was used for statistical analysis and Fisher's Extract test and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel Statistics for analysis of the relationship between expression of osteopontin and histologic types. RESULTS: Among 55 carcinomas, over 50% of tumor cells expressed osteopontin in 14/14 clear cell, 11/ 12 endometrioid, 11/16 serous, and 5/15 mucinous types. The expression degrees were well correlated with the histologic types of carcinomas (p=0.002). Among 25 benign tumors, over 10% of tumor cells showed in 11/15 serous and 3/10 mucinous types (p=0.008). However, the degree of osteopontin expression was not related to the tumor grades or stages of ovarian cancer. Semiquantitative study for osteopontin mRNA showed 5-6 times higher in SKOV3 cell line as well as in serous adenocarcinomas, compared with the normal ovaries. However, there was no increase of osteopontin mRNA in benign or malignant mucinous tumors. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the expression of osteopontin is not only present in ovarian cancers, but also in benign ovarian tumors.