TFF2 expression and H. pylori infection in gastric cancer tissues

Abstract

AIM:To investigate the relationship between the expression of TFF2 and H.pylori infection in human gastric precancerous lesions and gastric cancer, and to explore the role of TFF2 and H.pylori in human gastric precancerous lesions and gastric cancer. METHODS:The expression of TFF2 was immunohistochemically analyzed in paraffin-embedded samples obtained by endoscopic biopsy and subtotal gastractomy specimens from 119 patients including chronic superficial gastritis (CSG, 16), chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG, 16), intestinal metaplasia (IM, 35), gastric epithelial dysplasia (GED, 23) and gastric cancer (CA, 25), and conditions of H.pylori infection were detected by means of Warthin-Starry staining. RESULTS:TFF2 was located in the cell plasma of gastric mucous neck cells. The expressions of TFF2 were 100 %, 100 %, 0%, 56 % and 0% in CSG, CAG, IM, GED and CA, respectively. The density of TFF2 positive cells was higher in CSG with H.pylori infection than that without H. pylori infection (52.9±7.3 vs 46.5±13.0, P >0.05); but it was significantly lower in CAG and GED with H. pylori infection than that without H. pylori infection (18.2±4.1 vs 37.9±13.8, P <0.01 and 14.4±9.3 vs 24.8±10.2, P <0.05). CONCLUSION:The high expression of TFF2 is associated with the protective mechanism after the gastric mucosal injury, the low expression of TFF2 in CAG might attribute to the decreased number of gastric gland cells secreting TFF2; but the re-expression of TFF2 in GED suggests that TFF2 is involved with the initiation of gastric cancer. The effect of