Expression of sonic hedgehog and β-catenin in human pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of Sonic hedgehog(SHH)and WNT/β-cate-nin in human pancreatic cancer and explore its clinical significance.Methods Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot assay were used to determine the mRNA and protein expression of SHH and β-catenin in human pancreatic cancer tissue and normal tissues adjacent to cancer.Results The SHH mRNA and protein expression was detected in 81.6% and 79.6% of pancreatic cancer, respectively.The β-catenin protein expression was 71.4% in pancreatic cancer tis-sues.These were significantly different from those of normal tissue adjacent to cancer (P＜0.05).But the expression level of β-catenin mRNA was low in both pancreatic cancer tissues and normal tissues.There was no significant difference between them (P＞0.05).The expression of SHH and β-catenin protein in pancreatic cancer had no correlation with age, tumor size, pathological type and tumor site (P＞0.05), but had a relationship with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (P＜0.05).The cor-relation between SHH and β-catenin protein was positive (r=0.352, P＜0.05).Conclusion The SHH and WNT/β-catenin signaling pathways were active in human pancreatic cancer.The crosstalk between these pathways may play an important role in the carcinogenesis and development of pancreat-ic carcinoma. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms; Tumor; Sonic hedgehog; WNT; β-catenin