Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China.
Mol Cancer. 2009 Sep 3;8:70. doi: 10.1186/1476-4598-8-70.
Programmed cell death 4 (Pdcd4) is a novel tumour suppressor and originally identified as a neoplastic transformation inhibitor. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression, prognostic significance and potential function of Pdcd4 in ovarian cancer.
The expression of Pdcd4 was examined in 30 normal ovarian tissues, 16 borderline and 93 malignant ovarian tissues. A continuous down regulation of Pdcd4 expression in the sequence of normal, borderline and malignant tissues was observed. The expressions of Pdcd4 in both ovarian borderline tissues and carcinomas were significantly lower than the expression in normal ovarian tissues (p < 0.001). Furthermore, patients with lower Pdcd4 expressions were found to have shorter disease-free survival (p = 0.037). The expression of Pdcd4 was also assessed by immunohistochemical analysis in 13 ovarian normal tissues and 44 carcinomas. Different subcellular localization of Pdcd4 was observed in normal compared to malignant cells. Predominant nuclear localization of Pdcd4 was found in normal ovarian tissues while ovarian carcinomas showed mainly cytoplasmic localization of Pdcd4.
Our study demonstrated that the loss of Pdcd4 was a common abnormality at molecular level in ovarian cancer and it might be a potential prognostic factor in ovarian cancer patients.
程序性细胞死亡因子 4（Pdcd4）是一种新型的肿瘤抑制因子，最初被鉴定为肿瘤转化抑制剂。本研究旨在探讨 Pdcd4 在卵巢癌中的表达、预后意义及潜在功能。
在 30 例正常卵巢组织、16 例交界性卵巢组织和 93 例恶性卵巢组织中检测了 Pdcd4 的表达。Pdcd4 的表达呈连续下调趋势，正常、交界性和恶性组织依次降低。卵巢交界性组织和癌组织中 Pdcd4 的表达均显著低于正常卵巢组织（p<0.001）。此外，Pdcd4 低表达患者无病生存期较短（p=0.037）。采用免疫组织化学分析方法，在 13 例正常卵巢组织和 44 例癌组织中评估了 Pdcd4 的表达。与恶性细胞相比，正常细胞中 Pdcd4 的亚细胞定位不同。Pdcd4 在正常卵巢组织中主要定位于核内，而在卵巢癌组织中主要定位于细胞质。
本研究表明，Pdcd4 的缺失是卵巢癌分子水平上的常见异常，可能是卵巢癌患者的潜在预后因素。
