Expression of eadual type homobox transcription factor-2 and hepatocyte antigen in benign and malignant lesions of gallbladder and its clinicopathological significance

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of cadual type homobox transcription fac-tor-2 (Cdx-2) and hepatocyte antigen (Hep) in gallbladder adenocarcinoma, pericaneerous tissues and chronic cholecystitis and explore its clinicopathological significance. Methods Immunohistochemical method of EnVisionTM was used to detect the expression of Cdx-2 and Hep in the routinely paraffin-embedded sections of samples of gallbladder adenocareinoma (n=108), pericancerous tissues (n=46)and chronic cholecystitis (n=35). Results The positive rates of Cdx-2 and Hep were significantly higher in gallbladder adenocarcinoma (45.4%, 41.%) than in pericancerous tissues (28.3%, 23.9%,P<0.05) and chronic cholecystitis (5.7%, 5.7%, P<0.01). The positive rates were significantly higher in the cases of adenomatous canceration, maximal diameter of mass <2 cm and no-metastasis of lymph node than in those of low-differentiated adenocarcinoma, maximal diameter of mass≥2 cm and metastasis of lymph node (P<0.05 or 0.01). The positive rate of Cdx-2 was markedly higher in non-invasive cases of re-gional tissues than in invasive ones of regional tissues (P<0.01). The high consistence was found between Cdx-2 and Hep in gallbladder adenocareinoma. Conclusion The expression of Cdx-2 and Hep might be im-portant biological markers reflecting the carcinogenesis, progression, biological behaviors and prognosis of gallbladder adenocarcinoma. The intestinal metaplasia of gallbladder mucosa might have important elinico-pathological value for carcinogenesis of gallbladder. Key words: Gallbladder neoplasm; Chronic choleeystitis; Cadual type homobox transcrip-tion factor-2; Hepatocyte antigen; Immunohistochemistry