Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510080, P.R. China.
Hum Pathol. 2010 May;41(5):737-44. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2009.10.018. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
Stem cell marker nestin has been reported to be activated in various neoplasms, and its expression is correlated with poor prognosis. However, nestin expression in non-small cell lung cancer still remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate nestin expression in 52 tissue samples of non-small cell lung cancer by immunohistochemical staining and explore its correlation with some clinicopathologic characteristics. The associations of nestin with lymphatic vessel density, microvessel density, vascular endothelial growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor-C, and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were further observed to determine the linkage between nestin and lymphangiogenesis. The results showed that nestin expressed in tumor cells of 45 samples. High nestin expression correlated significantly with poor differentiation (P = .007), adenocarcinoma (P = .000), N2 lymph node metastasis (P = .006), high microvessel density (P = .033), and lymphatic vessel density (P = .020). Multivariate analysis of N1 and N2 lymph node metastasis revealed a 1.086-fold increase in hazard ratio of N2 lymph node involvement (P = .011) in patients with high nestin expression in primary tumor. More important, multivariate analysis showed a significant correlation of lymphatic vessel density with nestin and vascular endothelial growth factor-C expression (P = .039 and P = .045), independent of vascular endothelial growth factor, COX-2, and other clinicopathologic characteristics. The results demonstrated that nestin expressed in most tumor cells of non-small cell lung cancer tissue and had a direct linkage to lymph node metastasis and tumor-induced lymphangiogenesis, independent of COX-2 signal pathway.
巢蛋白是一种干细胞标志物，已被报道在多种肿瘤中被激活，其表达与预后不良相关。然而，巢蛋白在非小细胞肺癌中的表达仍不清楚。本研究旨在通过免疫组织化学染色检测 52 例非小细胞肺癌组织中巢蛋白的表达，并探讨其与某些临床病理特征的关系。进一步观察巢蛋白与淋巴管密度、微血管密度、血管内皮生长因子、血管内皮生长因子-C 和环氧化酶-2（COX-2）的相关性，以确定巢蛋白与淋巴管生成的关系。结果显示，45 例肿瘤细胞中表达巢蛋白。高巢蛋白表达与低分化（P =.007）、腺癌（P =.000）、N2 淋巴结转移（P =.006）、高微血管密度（P =.033）和淋巴管密度（P =.020）显著相关。N1 和 N2 淋巴结转移的多因素分析显示，原发肿瘤中巢蛋白高表达的患者 N2 淋巴结受累的风险比增加 1.086 倍（P =.011）。更重要的是，多因素分析显示，淋巴管密度与巢蛋白和血管内皮生长因子-C 的表达显著相关（P =.039 和 P =.045），与血管内皮生长因子、COX-2 和其他临床病理特征无关。研究结果表明，巢蛋白在非小细胞肺癌组织的大多数肿瘤细胞中表达，与淋巴结转移和肿瘤诱导的淋巴管生成直接相关，与 COX-2 信号通路无关。
