Expression of glycogen synthase kinase-3β in pancreatic cancer and its correlation with epithelialmesenchymal transition

Abstract

Objective To explore the glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) expression in pancreatic carcinoma and its correlation with epithelial-mesenchymal transition.Methods Sixty cases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma specimens dated from 2006-2010 were adopted in this study,35 of which had paired adjacent normal tissues.Immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of GSK-3β,Ser-9,Tyr-216,Sanil and E-cadherin.The correlation between GSK-3 β and pancreatic cancer clinicopathological parameters,or epithelial-mesenchymal transition was analyzed.Results The positive expression rate of GSK-3 β in pancreatic carcinoma was 65.0％,which was significantly higher than in paired adjacent normal tissues (22.8％),and GSK-3β expression was positive correlated with pancreatic cancer clinical stage classification,degree of differentiation and lymph node metastasis (P ＜ 0.05),but not with patient's age,gender and tumor size (P ＞ 0.05).Phosphorylation of GSK-3 β (Ser-9) in the paired adjacent normal tissues was significantly higher than in pancreatic cancer,and the expression of Tyr-216 and Snail was quite the opposite.E-cadherin expression was lower in both cancer and paired adjacent normal tissues.Pearson correlation analysis revealed that GSK-3β was correlated with other abovementioned markers.Conclusion GSK-3β expression was significantly higher in pancreatic cancer than in the paird adjacent normal tissues,and had a positive correlation with clinical stage,TNM stage,tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis.In addition,GSK-3β had significant relationship with epithelialmesenchymal transition. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms ; Glycogen synthase kinase-3 β ; Epithelial mesenchymal transition ; Tumor invasion