Overexpression of IGFBP5, but not IGFBP3, Correlates with the Histologic Grade of Human Diffuse Glioma: A Tissue Microarray and Immunohistochemical Study

Abstract

Insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) comprise a family of proteins that bind and regulate the functions of IGFs. One of the IGFBPs, IGFBP2, has recently been shown to be overexpressed in glioblastoma. Overexpression of IGFBP2 contributes to the invasiveness of glioblastoma and correlates with histologic grade and survival in patients with diffuse gliomas, suggesting that IGFBP2 expression may contribute to the glioma formation and/or progression. The expression of other IGFBP family members in gliomas has, however, not been examined in detail. This study was designed to evaluate the expression of IGFBP3 and IGFBP5 in diffuse gliomas using immunohistochemistry applied to a tissue array constructed from 259 gliomas, including ten gliosarcomas. Expression of IGFBP5 correlated significantly with glioma histologic grade. 83% (58/70) of glioblastomas (WHO Grade IV) were positive for IGFBP5, which was significantly higher than WHO Grade III gliomas (41%, 41/101) or WHO Grade II gliomas (18%, 13/72) (p<0.001). In contrast, IGFBP3 was expressed in 17%, 23%, and 17% of WHO Grade IV, Grade III, and Grade II gliomas, respectively (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in IGFBP3 expression among different grades of glioma. Our study thus demonstrates that the expression of IGFBP5, but not IGFBP3, increases with glioma anaplastic progression. The strong correlation between overexpression of IGFBP5 and histologic grade suggests that, in addition to IGFBP2, IGFBP5 may also play a role in glioma progression.