Expression and significance of artemin and its receptors GFRα3 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma / 中华胰腺病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate artemin and its receptors GFRα3 expression in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and its significance. Methods Expression and distribution of artemin and GFRα3 in 100 cases of human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC) and 40 cases of normal pancreatic tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR, quantitative RT PCR. Relations of artemin and GFRα3 with clinicopathological characteristics, especially nerve invasion were analyzed. Results Nerve invasion was detected in 64 out of 100 cases of PDAC, and the rate of nerve invasion was 64%. The ratio of expression of Artemin, GFRα3 protein in PDAC/normal pancreatic tissue was 2.697 ± 0.231 and 2.599 ± 0.588; the ratio of expression of Artemin, GFRα3 mRNA was 7.01 and 4.63. Artemin and GFRα3 expression were associated with tumor location, differentiation degree, TNM staging, nerve invasion node metastasis, but it was not associated with age, sex and tumor size. Artemin and GFRα3 expression was more positively expressed in cancer cells close to nerve tissue than cells far from nerve tissue. Conclusions Artemin and GFRα3 were involved in the development of pancreatic cancer and their high expression was closely related to perineural invasion.