Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, No 87 Xiangya Road, Changsha 410008, China.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2010 Nov;136(11):1737-43. doi: 10.1007/s00432-010-0832-9. Epub 2010 Mar 6.
Tumor angiogenesis is an important factor for the continuous growth of human malignancies and can be used to predict the prognosis for patients. In the current study, we examined the expression of EGF-like domain 7 (EGFL7), an endothelial cell-derived secreted factor, in malignant gliomas and explored its clinical significance.
We determined the steady-state mRNA levels of EGFL7 from 36 fresh glioma samples by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and the protein levels from 45 paraffin-embedded glioma samples by immunohistochemistry, respectively. Normal brain tissues from 10 patients with brain trauma were used as control. We also analyzed the correlations between the expression levels of EGFL7 and various clinical parameters, including patient gender, age, tumor grade, tumor proliferation marker Ki-67, and microvessel density (MVD).
We found that EGFL7 was not detectable in normal brain tissues, but was up-regulated in both tumor cells and vascular endothelial cells within malignant glioma. The expression level of EGFL7 in malignant glioma significantly correlated with the tumor grade, Ki-67 expression and MVD (P < 0.01).
Our data suggest that EGFL7 expression is a novel predictive factor for the clinical progression of malignant glioma, and may constitute a therapeutic target for anti-angiogenesis therapy in patients with the disease.
肿瘤血管生成是人类恶性肿瘤持续生长的一个重要因素，可用于预测患者的预后。在本研究中，我们检测了表皮生长因子样结构域 7（EGFL7）在恶性胶质瘤中的表达，并探讨了其临床意义。
我们通过半定量 RT-PCR 检测了 36 例新鲜脑胶质瘤样本中 EGFL7 的稳定态 mRNA 水平，通过免疫组化检测了 45 例石蜡包埋脑胶质瘤样本中 EGFL7 的蛋白水平，同时以 10 例脑外伤患者的正常脑组织作为对照。我们还分析了 EGFL7 的表达水平与各种临床参数之间的相关性，包括患者性别、年龄、肿瘤分级、肿瘤增殖标志物 Ki-67 和微血管密度（MVD）。
我们发现 EGFL7 在正常脑组织中不可检测，但在恶性胶质瘤中的肿瘤细胞和血管内皮细胞中均有上调。EGFL7 在恶性胶质瘤中的表达水平与肿瘤分级、Ki-67 表达和 MVD 显著相关（P<0.01）。
我们的数据表明，EGFL7 的表达是恶性胶质瘤临床进展的一个新的预测因子，可能成为该疾病抗血管生成治疗的一个治疗靶点。
