Kanauchi Hajime, Wada Nobuyuki, Ginzinger David G, Yu Mamie, Wong Mariwil G, Clark Orlo H, Duh Quan-Yang
Endocrine Surgical Oncology Fellows, Department of Surgery, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Aug;88(8):3690-3. doi: 10.1210/jc.2002-020965.
It is often difficult to distinguish histologically between an adrenal cortical cancer and a benign adenoma, or to predict the prognosis of patients with adrenal cortical cancers. In this investigation, we examined whether apoptosis-regulating genes, bcl-xL and fas, and a telomere-related gene, telomeric-repeat binding factor-1 (TRF-1), differ between adrenal cortical cancers and benign adrenal tumors. Tissues from 4 adrenal cortical cancers were compared with 7 normal adrenal tissues, 17 cortical adenomas, 4 cortical hyperplasias, and 20 pheochromocytomas for expressions of bcl-xL and fas by RT-PCR, and for expressions of TRF-1 by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. All benign adrenal tissues expressed both the antiapoptosis gene, bcl-xL, and proapoptosis gene, fas, but the adrenal cortical cancers expressed only bcl-xL and not fas. TRF-1 increased by more than 30-fold in the adrenal cortical cancers, compared with benign adrenal tissues, and inversely correlated with the prognosis of patients with the adrenal cortical cancers. This lack of expression of fas in adrenal cortical cancer may help to distinguish it from benign adrenal tumors. The level of TRF-1 expression may be helpful prognostically for patients with adrenal cortical cancers.
从组织学上区分肾上腺皮质癌和良性腺瘤往往很困难，或者预测肾上腺皮质癌患者的预后也很困难。在本研究中，我们检测了凋亡调节基因bcl-xL和fas以及端粒相关基因端粒重复结合因子1（TRF-1）在肾上腺皮质癌和肾上腺良性肿瘤之间是否存在差异。通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）比较了4例肾上腺皮质癌组织与7例正常肾上腺组织、17例皮质腺瘤、4例皮质增生和20例嗜铬细胞瘤中bcl-xL和fas的表达，并通过实时定量RT-PCR比较了TRF-1的表达。所有肾上腺良性组织均表达抗凋亡基因bcl-xL和促凋亡基因fas，但肾上腺皮质癌仅表达bcl-xL而不表达fas。与肾上腺良性组织相比，肾上腺皮质癌中TRF-1增加了30多倍，且与肾上腺皮质癌患者的预后呈负相关。肾上腺皮质癌中fas的这种表达缺失可能有助于将其与肾上腺良性肿瘤区分开来。TRF-1的表达水平可能对肾上腺皮质癌患者的预后判断有帮助。
