Alterations Of TGF-β/Smads Signal Pathway In Pancreatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia And Pancreatic Carcinoma

Objective: To analyse the frequency and significance of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia in 250 cases of benign and malignant lesions of the pancreas, and to investigate the correlative gene and protein expressions in normal pancreatic ductal epithelia, low-grade PanIN lesions, high-grade PanIN lesions and pancreatic ductal carcinoma. These results will be helpful to explore the mechanism of pancreatic carcinoma development.Methods: The comparative study of TGF- β /Smads signal pathway correlative genes and protein expressions was performed in pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias and pancreatic carcinomas by tissue microarray, EHC, LCM, PCR-SSCP and direct sequence analysis.Results: PanIN was found in 62.4% of benign and maligant pancreatic lesions. High-grade PanIN was respectively observed in 35.6%, 16.0% and 2.5% of ductal adenocarcinoma, chronic pancreatitis and normal pancreas. The frequency of high-grade PanIN occurrence in ductal adenocarcinoma was significantly higher than that in chronic pancreatitis ( p<0.01 ), moreover, the frequency of high-grade PanIN occurrence in chronic pancreatitis was significantly higher than that in normal pancreas ( p<0.05 ). PanIN-3 lesions were only seen in ductal adenocarcinoma and chronic pancreatitis. The frequency of higher-grade PanIN lesions was significantly higher in the group with smoking and alcohol abuse and /or diabetes mellitus than that in the the control group of ductal adenocarcinoma ( p<0.01). The frequency of PanIN...