State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Department of Pathology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
BMC Cancer. 2011 Jul 29;11:320. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-11-320.
CD133 is known to be a cancer stem cell (CSC) marker. However, recent studies have revealed that CD133 is not restricted to CSC but to be expressed not only in human normal tissues but also in some cancers and could serve as a prognostic factor for the patients. Nevertheless, the expression of CD133 in human cholangiocarcinoma (CC) is rare and our study is to detect the expression and explore the potential functions of CD133 in human CC.
Fifty-nine cases, comprised of 5 normal liver tissues and 54 consecutive CC specimens (21 well-differentiated, 12 moderately-differentiated and 21 poorly-differentiated), were included in the study. Immunohistochemical stainning with CD133 protein was carried out, and statistical analyses were performed.
CD133 was found to express in all 5 normal livers and 40 out of 54 (74%) CC tissues with different subcellular localization. In the well, moderately and poorly differentiated cases, the numbers of CD133 positive cases were 19 (19 of 21, 90%), 10 (10 of 12, 83%) and 11 (11 of 21, 52%) respectively. Further statistical analyses indicated that the expression and different subcellular localization of CD133 were significantly correlated with the differentiation status of tumors (P = 0.004, P = 0.009). Among 23 patients followed up for survival, the median survival was 4 months for fourteen CD133 negative patients but 14 months for nine CD133 positive ones. In univariate survival analysis, CD133 negative expression correlated with poor prognosis while CD133 positive expression predicted a favorable outcome of CC patients (P = 0.001).
Our study demonstrates that CD133 expression correlates with the differentiation of CC and indicates that CD133 is a potential indicator for differentiation and prognosis of human CC.
CD133 被认为是癌症干细胞 (CSC) 的标志物。然而，最近的研究表明，CD133 不仅局限于 CSC，而且不仅在人类正常组织中表达，而且在一些癌症中也表达，并可作为患者的预后因素。然而，CD133 在人类胆管癌 (CC) 中的表达很少，我们的研究旨在检测 CD133 在人类 CC 中的表达，并探讨其潜在功能。
本研究纳入了 59 例病例，包括 5 例正常肝组织和 54 例连续 CC 标本（21 例高分化、12 例中分化和 21 例低分化）。进行 CD133 蛋白免疫组织化学染色，并进行统计学分析。
CD133 在所有 5 例正常肝脏和 54 例 CC 组织中的 40 例（74%）中表达，其亚细胞定位不同。在高分化、中分化和低分化病例中，CD133 阳性病例数分别为 19 例（21 例，90%）、10 例（12 例，83%）和 11 例（21 例，52%）。进一步的统计分析表明，CD133 的表达和不同的亚细胞定位与肿瘤的分化状态显著相关（P=0.004，P=0.009）。在 23 例接受生存随访的患者中，14 例 CD133 阴性患者的中位生存时间为 4 个月，而 9 例 CD133 阳性患者的中位生存时间为 14 个月。单因素生存分析显示，CD133 阴性表达与预后不良相关，而 CD133 阳性表达提示 CC 患者的预后良好（P=0.001）。
本研究表明 CD133 的表达与 CC 的分化相关，并表明 CD133 是人类 CC 分化和预后的潜在标志物。
