Expression of CD133 and β-catenin in pancreatic cancer and clinical relevance

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression and significance of CD133 and β-catenin in pancreatic cancer and their relationship with the clinical pathologic characters. Methods Immunohistochemistry(SP) was used to detect the expression of CD133 and β-catenin in 35 pancreatic cancer tissues, the cancerous peripheral tissues, the normal pancreatic tissues and peripheral lymphonodes. Results The positive rates of CD133 and β-catenin expression in pancreatic carcinomas which were 74.3% and 62.9%, were significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissue(P<0.05). The clinicopathological factors including pathologic staging and lymph node metastasis, were demonstrated significantly positive correlations with the expression of CD133 respectively(P<0.05). The expression of β-catenin was associated with lymph node metastasis, pathological grade and histological differentiation, it also significantly correlated with the expression of CD133 (P<0.05). Consequently, the 5-year survival rate of CD133-positive patients was significantly lower than that of CD133-negative patients (P<0.05). Conclusions As important moleculars in prancreatic carcinoma stem cell, both CD133 andβ-catenin play important roles in the tumorigenesis, development and metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma.β-catenin may regulate certain functions of pancreatic cancer stem cell by regulatting CD133's expression. Key words: Pancreatic cancer; Cancer stem cells; CD133; β-catenin; Immunohistochemistry