Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11884, Egypt.
Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11884, Egypt.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2023 Jun 30;59(7):1233. doi: 10.3390/medicina59071233.
: LGR5 is one of the most important stem cell markers for colorectal cancer (CRC), as it potentiates Wnt/Β-catenin signaling. The well-characterized deregulation of Wnt/Β-catenin signaling that occurs during adenoma/carcinoma sequence in CRC renders LGR5 a hopeful therapeutic target. We assessed the immunohistochemical expression of LGR5 and Β-catenin in normal colonic and tumorous lesions with a clinicopathological correlation. : Tissue blocks and clinical data of 50 selected cases were included: 8 from normal mucosa, 12 cases of adenoma, and 30 cases of CRC, where sections were cut and re-examined and the immunohistochemical technique was conducted using anti-LGR5 and anti-Β-catenin to measure the staining density. : There was no expression of LGR5 in normal mucosa compared to samples of adenoma and CRC samples. The association analysis showed that CRC specimens were more likely to have strong LGR5 and Β-catenin expressions than the other two groups ( = 0.048 and < 0.001, respectively). Specimens with high-grade dysplastic adenoma were more likely to express moderate-to-strong expression of LGR5 and Β-catenin ( = 0.013 and = 0.036, respectively). In contrast, there were no statistically significant associations between LGR5 and Β-catenin expression with grade and stage. : These results suggest and support the possible role of LGR5 as a potential marker of cancer stem cells in sporadic colorectal carcinogenesis in addition to a prognostic value for LGR5 and Β-catenin in adenomatous lesions according to immunohistochemical expression density. A potential therapeutic role of LGR5 in CRC is suggested for future studies based on its role in pathogenesis.
LGR5 是结直肠癌（CRC）中最重要的干细胞标志物之一，因为它增强了 Wnt/Β-连环蛋白信号通路。CRC 中腺瘤/癌序列中发生的 Wnt/Β-连环蛋白信号通路的特征性失调使得 LGR5 成为有希望的治疗靶点。我们评估了 LGR5 和 Β-连环蛋白在正常结肠和肿瘤病变中的免疫组织化学表达，并进行了临床病理相关性分析。
纳入了 50 例选定病例的组织块和临床数据：8 例来自正常黏膜，12 例为腺瘤，30 例为 CRC，对这些病例的切片进行了重新检查，并使用抗 LGR5 和抗 Β-连环蛋白进行了免疫组织化学技术检测，以测量染色密度。
与腺瘤和 CRC 样本相比，正常黏膜中没有 LGR5 的表达。关联分析表明，CRC 标本比其他两组更有可能具有强烈的 LGR5 和 Β-连环蛋白表达（=0.048 和 <0.001）。高级别异型增生腺瘤的标本更有可能表达中-强表达的 LGR5 和 Β-连环蛋白（=0.013 和 =0.036）。相比之下，LGR5 和 Β-连环蛋白表达与分级和分期之间没有统计学显著关联。
这些结果表明并支持 LGR5 作为散发性结直肠发生癌变中的癌症干细胞潜在标志物的可能作用，此外，根据免疫组织化学表达密度，LGR5 和 Β-连环蛋白在腺瘤病变中具有预后价值。基于其在发病机制中的作用，LGR5 在 CRC 中的潜在治疗作用有待进一步研究。
