[Expressions and clinical significance of vasculogenic mimicry and related protein Mig-7 and MMP-2 in gastric carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE

To study the expressions and clinical significance of vasculogenic mimicry (VM) and the related protein Mig-7 and MMP-2 in gastric carcinoma.

METHODS

We observed the expressions of CD34, Mig-7 and MMP-2 in 110 patients with gastric carcinoma using immunohistochemistry, VM was determined by CD34/PAS double staining, and analyzed their correlations with the clinical and pathological characteristics of the patients.

RESULTS

In the 110 patients with gastric carcinoma, 35(31.82%) were found positive for VM expression, and it was correlated with the pathological degree and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), that was, the positive rate of VM in the poorly-differentiated tissues (34%) was higher than that in the well-differentiated tissues (10%), and it was also higher in the lymph node metastasis than that in the non-lymph node metastasis. The expression of Mig-7 was found in 104 out of the 110 cases of gastric carcinoma, with a positive rate of 94.54%. The high expression of Mig-7 was related to lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). The expression rates of Mig-7 and MMP-2 were higher in the VM-positive group than in the VM-negative group (P<0.05). The average survival time and median survival time of the VM-positive group were shorter than those of the VM-negative group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

The presence of VM in gastric carcinoma tissues is proved. The high expressions of Mig-7 and MMP-2 in gastric carcinoma tissues may have a synergistic promoting effect on VM formation. VM is closely associated with the invasion, metastasis and poor prognosis of gastric carcinoma.