Expression of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin in human brainstem gliomas and clinicopathological correlations. (6th March 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Wenhao; Tian, Yongji; Wan, Hong; Ma, Junyan; Song, Yongmei; Wang, Yu; Zhang, Liwei
• Is Part Of: International journal of neuroscience. Volume 123:Number 5(2013:May)
• Page Start: 318
• Page End: 323
• Publication Date: 2013-03-06
• Subjects: Nervous system -- Periodicals; 612.805
• DOI: 10.3109/00207454.2012.758123
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7454

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Brainstem gliomas are usually associated with serious dysfunction and poor prognosis especially for diffuse intrinsic brainstem gliomas; however, the reasons are still unclear. Some clinical studies have suggested that the invasive ability may be different among brainstem gliomas, and the dysfunction of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin appears to be connected with tumor invasion and progression. In this study, the expression of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin was detected in 40 brainstem glioma samples using immunochemistry and was further analyzed in 18 samples using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The clinicopathological characteristics were also analyzed. The results show that there was no obvious staining for E-cadherin, but weak expression at the messenger RNA (mRNA) level could be seen in a few samples. The protein and mRNA expression levels of β-catenin and N-cadherin were significantly associated with the pathological grades of brainstem gliomas. No significant differences in the expression levels of β-catenin and N-cadherin were observed for age, sex, location or diffuse growing pattern. The overall survival of patients with low β-catenin expression was longer than that with high β-catenin expression, and there was a trend toward increased expression of N-cadherin with shorter survival; however, both of them had no statistical differences. These results demonstrate that expression of β-catenin and N-cadherin is associated with the malignant progression of brainstem gliomas but not correlated with the diffuse and invasive growing pattern. β-catenin and N-cadherin are potential therapeutic targets and prognostic markers for brainstem glioma, which need to be validated in a larger patient cohort.</p> </abstract>