The expressions of Pin1, β-catenin and cyclin D1 in elderly lung carcinomas and their significance

Abstract

To investigate the expressions and correlations of Pin1, β-catenin and cyclin D1 in elderly lung carcinomas. The expressions of Pin1, β-catenin and cyclin D1 were examined in the specimens of 92 elderly lung carcinomas and 10 normal lung tissues by immunohistochemistry and explored the relationship between the expression levels and clinicopathological factors. (1) The overexpression of Pin1 and cyclin D1 in lung carcinomas was 46 (50%) cases and 60 (65.22%) cases respectively and 56 (60.82%) cases showed positive immunoreactivity for β-catenin in the nuclear and (or) cytoplasmic fraction in tumor tissues. In normal tissue, the expressions of Pin1 and cyclin D1 were negative, the expression of β-catenin was lied in cell membrane. (2) In lung carcinomas the expressions of Pin1, β-catenin and cyclin D1 correlated with tumor differentiation (P < 0.05). The positive expression rate and intensity of Pin1 correlated with tumor stage (P = 0.032) and lymph node positive disease (P = 0.041). The expression of β-catenin correlated with lymph node positive disease (P = 0.012). (3) High expression levels of Pin1 correlated with aberrant β-catenin expression (P = 0.000) but did not show a correlation with cyclin D1 (P = 0.157). In elderly lung carcinomas, the positive expression of Pin1 causes abnormal accumulation of β-catenin and actives its target gene, however, this target gene was not cyclin D1. The detection of Pin1 expression had some clinical significance in estimating prognosis of elderly patient with lung carcinomas.