Expressions of estrogen receptor subtypes and c-met proto-oncogene in endometrial carcinoma and their correlation / 药物分析学报

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expressions of estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes and c-met proto-oncogene in human endometrial carcinomas and to assess the clinical significance of ER and c-met in this carcinoma. Methods Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expressions of ERα, ERβ and c-met proto-oncogene mRNA in 30 samples of endometrial carcinoma and 11 samples of normal endometrium. Results The expression of ERα in endometrial carcinoma (0.70±0.40) was significantly reduced in comparison to that in normal endometrium (1.14±0.56, P<0.05). A similar finding was made for the expression of ERβ in carcinoma (0.24±0.18) versus normal tissues (0.48±0.20, P<0.05). In contrast, c-met mRNA expression was increased in endometrial carcinoma (1.45±0.72) compared to that in normal endometrium (0.42±0.31, P<0.01). A decrease tendency of the expression of ERα was also found from Stage Ⅰ (0.82±0.41) to a more severe Stag Ⅱ-Ⅲ of endometrial carcinoma (0.42±0.17, P<0.05). The analysis of ERα and ERβ mRNA revealed a decrease tendency from shallow to deep invasion of the uterine muscles (P<0.05). We found that the expressions of ERα and ERβ were negatively correlated with c-met proto-oncogene with a coefficient correlation of -0.63 (P<0.01) and -0.32 (P<0.05), respectively. Conclusion ERα and ERβ are both involved in mutagenic action of carcinogen. C-met proto-oncogene plays an important role in the carcinogenesis and development of endometrial carcinoma. C-met and ER expressions show a negative correlation in the development of endometrial carcinoma.