Mucin phenotype and microvessels in early gastic cancer: Magnifying endoscopy with narrow band imaging.

Backgrounds: In order to detect early gastric cancer (EGC), this research sought to assess the diagnostic utility of magnifying endoscopy (ME) as well as the significance of mucin phenotype and microvessel features. Methods: 402 individuals with an EGC diagnosis underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) at the Department of ME between 2012 and 2020. After adjusting for image distortion, high-magnification endoscopic pictures were taken and examined to find microvessels in the area of interest. The microvessel density was measured as counts per square millimeter (counts/mm2) after segmentation, and the vascular bed's size was computed as a percentage of the area of interest. To identify certain properties of the microvessels, such as end-points, crossing points, branching sites, and connection points, further processing was done using skeletonized pixels. Results: According to the research, undifferentiated tumors often lacked the MS pattern and showed an oval and tubular microsurface (MS) pattern, but differentiated EGC tumors usually lacked the MS pattern and presented a corkscrew MV pattern. Submucosal invasion was shown to be more strongly associated with the destructive MS pattern in differentiated tumors as opposed to undifferentiated tumors. While lesions with a corkscrew MV pattern and an antrum or body MS pattern revealed greater MUC5AC expression, lesions with a loop MV pattern indicated higher MUC2 expression. Furthermore, CD10 expression was higher in lesions with a papillary pattern and an antrum or body MS pattern. Conclusion: These results imply that evaluating mucin phenotype and microvessel features in conjunction with magnifying endoscopy (ME) may be a useful diagnostic strategy for early gastric cancer (EGC) detection. Nevertheless, further investigation is required to confirm these findings and identify the best course of action for EGC diagnosis.

Reduction of CAII Expression in Gastric Cancer: Correlation with Invasion and Metastasis.

OBJECTIVE: Human carbonic anhydrases II (CAII) gene plays an important role in different cancer. However, its relevance to gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the expression of CAII in GC and explore its correlation with some clinicopathologic characteristics of GC. METHODS: The expression of CAII in 20 specimens of normal gastric mucosa, 38 specimens of intraepithelial neoplasia and 112 specimens of gastric carcinoma were detected by immunohistochemical techniques. Survival in GC with CAII expression was studied. RESULTS: The positive rate of CAII protein in normal gastric mucosa was significantly higher than that in intraepithelial neoplasia and gastric carcinoma (100% vs. 63.16% and 28.57%, P<0.001). The positive rate of CAII protein was significantly higher in gastric carcinoma at early stages than that at advanced stages (70.0% vs. 19.57%, P<0.001). The positive rate of CAII protein was significantly lower in gastric carcinoma with lymph node metastases than that without lymph node metastases (10.81% vs. 37.33%, P<0.05). Furthermore, the positive rate of CAII protein was significantly lower in poorly-differentiated gastric carcinoma than in moderately- or well-differentiated gastric carcinoma (15.94% vs. 31.03% or 60.00%, P<0.05). Moreover, CAII expression was not related with sex, age and tumor size. The patients with CAII-positive tumors showed a better survival rate than those with CAII-negative tumors (P=0.024, log-rank test). CONCLUSION: CAII expression was related with stages and lymph node metastases in gastric carcinoma. The reduction of CAII expression in GC might promote tumor cell motility and contribute to tumor growth and metastasis.

TRX is up-regulated by fibroblast growth factor-2 in lung carcinoma.

We have previously shown that exogenous fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) inhibits apoptosis of the small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) cell line NCI-H446, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. In this study, the protein profiles of FGF-2-treated and untreated NCI-H446 cells were determined by 2-D gel electrophoresis combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and bioinformatics. Differential expression analysis of the protein profiles after FGF-2 treatment identified a total of 24 protein spots, of which nine were up-regulated and 15 were down-regulated. Four proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF-MS: thioredoxin (TRX), visfatin, ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) and Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD). Western blotting revealed that TRX was up-regulated in NCI-H446 and A549 cells treated with FGF-2. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining confirmed that both FGF-2 and TRX were overexpressed in lung cancer tissues and could be correlated with both lymph node metastasis and clinical stage. These data indicate that TRX may be involved in the FGF-2 signaling pathway.

[Effect of FGF-2 on survivin and subcellular location of Smac in human small cell lung cancer cell NCI-H446].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2)on survivin and subcellular location of Smac in human small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cell NCI-H446. METHODS: Western blot was used to detect the expression of survivin protein induced by FGF-2. The release of Smac from mitochondria to cytoplasm affected by FGF-2 was observed by Western blot and immunofluorescence. Apoptosis of NCI-H446 cells was detected with flow cytometry and Hoechst 33258 staining. RESULTS: The expression of survivin could be up-regulated in response to FGF-2 treatment in NCI-H446 cells, and the level of survivin expression is related to the concentration and time of FGF-2 treatment. FGF-2 could inhibit the release of Smac from the mitochondria to cytoplasm induced by serum starving. FGF-2 could inhibit the apoptosis induced by serum starving. CONCLUSION: FGF-2 up-regulates the expression of survivin protein in NCI-H446 cells, and blocks the release of Smac from mitochondria cytoplasm. Survivin and Smac might play important roles in the apoptosis inhibited by FGF-2.

[Expression of survivin and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in human non-small cell lung cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the expressions of survivin and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to explore its clinical pathological significance. METHODS: Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expressions of survivin and PCNA in 43 patients with NSCLC and 15 normal epithelial tissues of the lung. PCNA labeling proliferative index was assessed. Forty-three patients with NSCLC were followed up for more than 5 years. RESULTS: The positive expression of survivin in NSCLC (79.1%) was significantly higher than that in normal epithelial tissues of the lung (P < 0.01). The survivin expression in Stage I + II was lower than in Stage III (P < 0.05). The overall survival time was significantly shorter in patients with high survivin expression than that in patients with absent or low survivin expression. The survivin expression was not related to sex, age, tumor size and site, histological type, grade, and lymphoid node metastasis (P > 0.05). The mean proliferative index of PCNA in NSCLC was much higher than that in normal epithelial tissues of the lung (P < 0.01). A positive correlation was present between the proliferative index and the tumor size, lymph node metastase, and clinical stage (P <0.01), while a negative correlation between the proliferative index and survival time (P <0.01). There was no correlation between proliferative index and age, sex, site, histological type and grade. The proliferative index was larger in patients with moderate or strong positive survivin expression than that in patients with negative or weak survivin expression (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Over expression of survivin and PCNA is closely correlated to the progression and prognosis of patients with NSCLC, which is helpful to evaluate the progression of cancer and to predict the prognosis of NSCLC. The up-regulation of survivin expression and its close relationship with the cell proliferation in NSCLC suggest that survivin may play an important role in the carcinogenesis and development of lung cancer.

[Proliferation inhibition of human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 transfected by RASSF1A gene].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of exogenous RASSF1A gene on the proliferation and expression of P65 and subunit of NF-kappaB, in lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549. METHODS: pcDNA3.0-RASSF1A and pcDNA3. 0 were introduced into A549 cell line by lipofectin transfection, and the A549 cells stably expressing RASSF1A gene were established by G418 selection. The expression of RASSF1A was detected by Western blotting. The cytobiologic characterizations of the positive clone were analyzed by methythiazoletertraolium (MTT) assay and cytometry. The expressing of P65 was analyzed by RT-PCR and Western blotting. RESULTS: A549 cells stably expressing RASSF1A protein were established by lipofection mediated transfection and selected for further study. Compared with the nontransfected and vector transfected cells, the positive clone cells grew more slowly. Flow cytometric data showed that more positive clone cells went into phase G0/G1 and fewer cells went into phase S. The expression of P65 in nuclear protein in positive clone cells was lower than that of the control group while there was no obvious difference between the expression of p65 mRNA and P65 protein in total protein among the 3 groups. CONCLUSION: RASSF1A gene might suppress the proliferation of A549 cells through blocking the activity of P65 protein.