GalNAc-T6 in the relationship with invasion ability of endometrial carcinomas and prognostic significance.

O-glycosylation in the field of carcinogenesis has been a critical topic of concern for several decades. The abnormal function of enzymes catalyzing the first step of this process, named polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (ppGalNAc-Ts) has been determined to play an important role in cancer development and metastasis. Accordingly, we investigated the expression of GalNAc-T6 in endometrial carcinoma and evaluated the relationship between invasion characteristics and the cellular level of GalNAc-T6. The results suggested that positive GalNAc-T6 expression is significantly associated with histological grade of tumors and myometrial invasion characteristic. In vitro experiments showed that the over expression of GalNAc-T6 had strong association with the decrease of endometrial cell invasiveness. Taken together, our data support the use of GalNAc-T6 as a potential indicator of good prognosis and noninvasive tumor in patients with endometrial carcinoma.

Detection of SYT-SSX fusion transcripts in paraffin-embedded tissues of synovial sarcoma by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the feasibility of detecting SYT-SSX fusion transcripts in paraffin-embedded tissues of synovial sarcoma by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>RT-PCR was used to amplify the SYT-SSX fusion transcripts using archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor specimens from a series of 37 synovial sarcoma cases. To investigate the specificity of the SYT-SSX fusion transcripts, a variety of non-synovial sarcoma tumors were included in the study as negative controls. The detected messages derived from fusion genes were confirmed by subsequent sequence analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>SYT-SSX fusion transcripts were detected in 33 of 37 (89.2%) synovial sarcomas. None of the 34 cases of non-synovial sarcoma tumors showed amplified products of SYT-SSX fusion transcripts, although PBGD mRNA was detected in all specimens. Among 33 SYT-SSX-positive synovial sarcomas, 22 tumors had an SYT-SSX 1 fusion transcript, whereas 6 tumors had an SYT-SSX2 fusion transcript. Fusion types can not be distinguished in the remaining 5 cases. There was a significant relationship between SYT-SSX fusion type and histologic subtype. All 10 biphasic synovial sarcomas had the SYT-SSX1 fusion, whereas all tumors with SYT-SSX2 were of monophasic morphology (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>RT-PCR can be applied to archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissues as a sensitive and reliable technique for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of synovial sarcoma. There is an association between SYT-SSX fusion type and histological subtype. SYT-SSX2 fusion transcripts can only be found in monophasic synovial sarcoma.</p>