Expression and clinical significance of Shh, Gli1, Sufu, TAK1, p-TAK1 protein in pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of Hedgehog signaling pathway members,Shh,Gli1,Sufu and TAK1 as well as phosphorylation-TAK1 (p-TAK1) protein in human pancreatic carcinoma tissues and to explore its relationship between the expression of proteins and the clinicopathologic parameters.Methods The expressions of Shh,Glil,Sufu,TAK1,p-TAK1 proteins in 38 samples of pancreatic cancer tissues and pairing adjacent normal pancreatic tissues were detected by immunohistochemical method.The relationship among the proteins and the relationship between the expression of the proteins and the clinicopathologic parameters were examined.Results The positive expression rates of Shh,Glil,Sufu,TAK1,p-TAK1 protein in human pancreatic carcinoma were 86.8％ (33/38),52.6％ (22/38),68.4％(26/38),55.3％ (21/38),52.6％ (20/38),but they were not expressed in adjacent normal pancreatic tissues.Gli1 expression was positively related to distant metastasis and clinical staging (r =0.524,0.361,P ＜0.05),Sufu expression was positively related to patient's gender (r =-0.378,P ＜0.05),TAK1 expression was positively related to clinical staging (r =0.468,P ＜ 0.05),p-TAK1 expression was positively related to clinical staging and distant metastasis (r =0.418,0.361,P ＜ 0.05).Gli1 expression was positively related to TAK1 and p-TAK1 expression in pancreatic cancer tissues (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Hedgehog signaling pathway and p-TAK1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer,and the two pathways may interact with each other. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasm; Immunohistochemistry; Hedgehog signal pathway; Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases