Study on the significance of STAT3 and CD34 in the early diagnosis of gastric cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression and significance of signal transduction and transcription activation factor 3 (STAT3) and CD34 in gastric carcinogenesis.Methods Pathological tissue specimens was collected in the Department of Pathology,The Second People's Hospital,Shenzhen from January 2006 to December 2011.According to the pathological diagnosis,four groups were set up including chronic gastritis,intestinal metaplasia,displasia,and gastric cancer groups (n =30 cases/goup).STAT3 and CD34 were detected by immunohistochemistry.Results The positive expression rates of STAT3 were 16.67％ in the chronic gastritis group,93.33％ in the intestinal metaplasia group,83.33％ in the displasia group,and 86.67％ in the gastric cancer group with a statistically significant difference among four groups (x2 =157.55,133.33,59.80,P ＜ 0.01),and,however,without statistically significant difference among the intestinal metaplasia,displasia,and gastric cancer groups (P ＞ 0.05).The expressions of CD34 were 13.01 ±9.19 in the chronic gastritis group,13.09 ±9.37 in the intestinal metaplasia group,21.38 ± 8.51 in the displasia group,and 28.64 ± 8.62 in the gastric cancer group.The microvascular density showed a statistically significant difference among four groups (P ＜0.01) ; however,no difference was found between the chronic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia groups (P ＞ 0.05) and between the displasia and gastric cancer groups (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions The expressions of STAT3 were increased significantly,and were related to the occurrence and development of gastric cancer.The increased microvascular density was related to the occurrence of gastric cancer.The combination of expression changes of STAT3 and CD34 will benefit the early diagnosis of gastric cancer. Key words: Trans-activators/metabolism; Antigens, CD34/analysis; Stomach neoplasms/diagnosis; Stomach neoplasms/pathology