Expressão de N-e E-caderinas, Alfa-e Beta-cateninas em tumores epiteliais de ovario

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2003

RESUMO

Changes in the expression pattern of the adhesion molecules are observed in the malignant development of different types of cancer, being related with tumor cell invasion and metastasis. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the expression patterns of a- and b-catenins, E- and N-cadherins in benign and malignant tumors of the ovarian surface epithelium, trying to establish possible correlations between the expression of these molecules, the tumor staging and the manifestation of metastasis in the malignant neoplasias. Immunohistochemical preparations, obtained from 88 paraffin-embedded biopsies (39 benign and 49 malignant) taken from women who underwent surgery for the resection of the ovaries from 1993 to 2001, in the hospital of the State University of Campinas. These samples were evaluated accordingly to the number of positive cells, stained cellular structures and reaction intensity for each one of the analyzed molecules. The results showed that most of the malignant tumors presented more intense b-catenin immunoreactions (p=0,01) and also a bigger number of a-catenin positive cells (p=0,04). Endometrioid carcinomas presented increased expression of b-catenin, in number of positive cells (p=0,04) and in the intensity of the immunoreactions (p=0,01). Malignant tumors where the E-cadherin staining was preserved in the membrane showed no metastasis, whereas E-cadherin negative cases or cases which presented E-cadherin expression just in the cytoplasm had metastasis in their evolution (p= 0,04). Considering these results, E-cadherin might be a marker of prognosis value in ovarian cancer. In addition, the increased expression of b- and a-catenin in malignant ovarian tumors suggests the use of these molecules as markers of malignancy. This data also showed that the N-cadherin expression was correlated with different histologic ovarian tumor types, but not with tumor staging or case evolution

ASSUNTO(S)

moleculas de adesão celular cancer imunohistoquimica

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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