The Relationship Between Serum Testosterone Level,Expression Of Androgen Receptor And Clinicopathological Characteristics In Patients With Glioma

Objective To investigate the serum level of testosterone (T) and the expression ofandrogen receptor (AR) in the tumor tissue in patients with glioma, and to analyze thecorrelation between their expression level with clinical pathological features in glioma.Methods (1) The serum T level was detected in189cases of glioma patients,176cases of benign brain tumor patients and118cases of healthy individuals with AccessTestosterone reagents.(2) The expression pattern of AR was investigated byimmunohistochemistry (IHC), western blotting, and real-time PCR respectively in73cases of glioma specimens and12cases of normal control brain tissues.Results (1) The level of serum T in glioma patient (male16.49±3.98, female3.69±1.99) was significantly higher than that in benign tumor patients (male11.40±4.60,female0.80±0.58) and healthy individuals (male9.47±3.70, female0.83±0.45)(P<0.05), but no signicant correlation was found between the serum T level and theWHO grade of glioma(P>0.05).(2) The immunopositive ratio was5.13％±2.10％inWHO Grade I,13.91％±10.99％in WHO Grade II,44.32％±27.33％in WHO GradeIII,61.52％±27.07％in WHO Grade IV，respectively（P<0.05）．The relative mRNAlevel of AR was1.01±0.21in normal brain tissues,1.85±0.35in WHO Grade I,3.00±0.62in WHO Grade II,5.33±0.99in WHO Grade III,7.78±0.95in WHO Grade IV, respectively（P<0.05).These results were consistent with the findings of the westernblotting analysis and demonstated a close relationship between the AR proteinexpression and pathological grade in gliomas.AR protein positive rate and mRNA levelsin glioma at all levels were significantly higher than that of normal brain tissue (both P<0.001). The WHO classification of glioma was significantly positively related to ARimmunopositive ratio (rs=0.584, P <0.001), and the AR mRNA expression (rs=0.885,P<0.001).(3) These was a significant positive correlation between the serum T leveland the AR mRNA level (rs=0.938,p<0.001), as well as the protein expression level(rs=0.873, p<0.001).Conclusion The level of serum T in glioma patient was significantly higher than thatin benign tumor patients and healthy individuals, but no signicant correlation was foundbetween the serum T level and the WHO grade of glioma.AR is overexpressed inglioma．The relative expression level of AR is related to the pathological grades.Thehigh level of serum T and overexpression of AR might be useful molecular markers forearly diagnosis and prognosis prediction in human glioma.Androgen/androgen receptormay play an important oncogenic role in glioma progression, and it is a potentialbiomarker and candidate therapy target for patients with glioma.