Expression Of ITIH4 And Hb-β In Ovarian Epithelial-carcinoma And Its Significance

Background and Objective:Ovarian cancer is characterize by few early symptoms, so many ovarian cancer patients are diagnosed at advanced stages and ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological cancer. Therefore, it is very necessary to search for biomarker for screening and early diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Serum is extremely complex and contains a lot of proteins which body tissues or cells secrete and shed to blood. The proteins may reflect the physiological and pathological conditions of body in a very wide range. Searching for proteins correlated with specific cancer not only helps clarify the mechanism of tumour development and metastasis, but may provide a new method for early diagnosis of tumors .Researchers analyzed blood samples by SELDI-TOF-MS and found that the frag of ITIH4 and Hb-βwere increased in the serum of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma. However, the protein expression of ITIH4 and Hb-βin ovarian tumors remains unknown. In this study we evaluate the expression and significance of ITIH4 and Hb-P in ovarian epithelial-carcinoma and benign ovarian tumors to found protein correlated with ovarian epithelial-carcinoma.Methods:1.During December 2007 to May 2009, patients with ovarian tumors who were treated surgically were enrolled in this study, among them 25 cases of benign ovarian tumors(7 cases mucinous cystadenoma and 18 cases serous cystadenoma) and 33 cases of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma(23 cases serous cystadenocarcinoma,8 cases mucous cystadenocarcinoma and 2 cases other type of cystadenocarcinoma). Western-blot and immunohistochemistry method were used to detect the expression of ITIH4.Immunohistochemistry method was used to detect the expression of Hb-β.And clinical pathological sections of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma were also examined. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 13.0 software.Results:1. ITIH4 was expressed 12.12%(4/33) in 33 cases of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma,48.00%(12/25) in 25 cases of benign ovarian tumors. The expression of ITIH4 was significantly lower in ovarian epithelial-carcinoma than that in benign ovarian tumors (P<0.05). 2. The expression of ITIH4 correlated negatively with the level of serum CA-125, but was not associated with the histological grade, surgical stage, ascites and age (P> 0.05).3. The expression of ITIH4 was lost in ovarian mucinous cystadenoma and ovarian mucous cystadenocarcinoma. There was no significant difference in expression of ITIH4 between the two different tissues(P＞0.05).4. Hb-P was expressed 69.70%(23/33) in 33 cases of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma,20.00%(5/25) in 25 cases of benign ovarian tumors. The expression of Hb-βwas significantly higher in ovarian epithelial-carcinoma than that in benign ovarian tumors (P＜0.05).5. The overexpression of Hb-P had no relationship with the histological type, age, surgical stage and the histological grade (P＞0.05).Conclusion:1. The expression of ITIH4 was decreased in ovarian epithelial-carcinoma and increased in benign ovarian tumors, which showed that ITIH4 may be cleaved in the progression of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma. ITIH4 may be associated with the pathogenesis of ovarian epithelial-carcinoma.2. The high expression of Hb-βin ovarian epithelial-carcinoma is consistent with the increasing of Hb-βin serum with ovarian epithelial-carcinoma. So Hb-βmay be a more reliable biomarker for ovarian epithelial-carcinoma.