ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of soluble E-cadherin as a serum marker and bcl-2 and DNA content as tissue markers in characterization and management of prostatic adenocarcinoma (PC) among Egyptian males. DESIGN AND METHODS: The study group included 71 patients with prostatic adenocarcinoma, 30 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and 20 normal male subjects. Serum soluble E-cadherin (sE-cadherin) and PSA were quantified by ELISA and MEIA (microparticle enzyme immunoassay) techniques, respectively. Tissue samples were investigated for bcl-2 chromosomal translocation t(14;18) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) together with detection of bcl-2 protein expression by immunohistochemistry. The results were correlated with DNA content (as defined by flow cytometric analysis) and also with traditional clinicopathologic parameters. RESULTS: Our data revealed that, serum PSA was superior to sE-cadherin as a marker for PC with a sensitivity of 83% compared to 59% in case of E-cadherin at the same specificity (96.6%). Combination of both markers raised the sensitivity to 90%. E-cadherin correlated with Gleason score. Ploidy status, synthetic phase fraction (SPF), and proliferation index (PI) correlated significantly with tumor Gleason score. PI was also correlated to clinical stage. bcl-2 protein was overexpressed in 14% of PC and it showed a trend for correlation with tumor Gleason score (p = 0.06). We failed to detect chromosomal t(14;18) in the bcl-2 gene in all the studied tumors. CONCLUSIONS: E-Cadherin is a clinically useful biomarker in PC specially in combination with PSA. DNA content changes and bcl-2 oncogene may account for tumorogenesis and may assist in prognostication of PC.
Subject(s)
Adenocarcinoma/genetics , Adenocarcinoma/metabolism , Biomarkers, Tumor/metabolism , Prostatic Neoplasms/genetics , Prostatic Neoplasms/metabolism , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2/genetics , Adenocarcinoma/pathology , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Biomarkers, Tumor/blood , Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics , Cadherins/blood , Case-Control Studies , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 14 , Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2 , Diploidy , Egypt , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Prostate-Specific Antigen/blood , Prostatic Hyperplasia/genetics , Prostatic Hyperplasia/metabolism , Prostatic Hyperplasia/pathology , Prostatic Neoplasms/pathology , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2/metabolism , Reference Values , Translocation, GeneticABSTRACT
A dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (dot-ELISA) was developed using excretory-secretory (ES) antigens of Fasciola gigantica adult worms and freeze-thaw antigen (AFT) of adult Schistosoma mansoni worms. Specific IgG and IgM antibodies were simultaneously investigated in sera from 17 febrile eosinophilic hospitalized patients and 20 healthy controls. Dot-ELISA was shown useful and could differentiate fascioliasis from schistosomiasis prior to parasite egg detection in patient's stool. This assay is field and laboratory applicable.
Subject(s)
Fascioliasis/diagnosis , Schistosomiasis mansoni/diagnosis , Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic/blood , Antigens, Helminth/isolation & purification , Diagnosis, Differential , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Humans , Immunoglobulin G/blood , Immunoglobulin M/blood , Serologic TestsABSTRACT
The plant khat "Catha Edulis Forsk" is widely distributed among most East African countries, Yemen and many other areas of the world. Administration of khat extract by the intragastric route in rabbits affected the metabolism of erythrocytes. There is a significant decrease in pyruvate kinase and the level of reduced glutathione (P less than 0.001), and a highly significant increase in both glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione reductase activities (P less than 0.001) in khat-fed rabbits as compared to controls. On the other hand the activity of uridyl transferase as well as the concentration of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate were not significantly changed in experimental khat-fed rabbits (P greater than 0.5).
