Histology And Nm23-h1 Mmp-2 Protein Expression Difference Between The Gastric Primary Tumor And The Metastatic Tumor

Gastric carcinoma(GC)is a common malignant tumor. Among factors influencing GC progression, lymph node metastasis and invasive depth is the most important, but lymph node metastasis can be considered as one of the independent factors. Many investigation have been performed on the mechanism of metastasis and molecular-biology of GC, Little is known about the tumor heterogeneity of GC.Tumor heterogeneity is a feature of malignant tumor, it's the cellular difference within a single neoplasm between different patients or different neoplasm within the same patient, including nucleolus type, growth pattern, content of DNA, histological type, growth speeding, sensitivity to chemotherapy, antigenic expression, cellular markers, metastasis proclivity, immunological characteristics etc. Histology and functional (antigen) protein expression are the main parts of the tumor heterogeneity. We compare the difference of histology and nm23-Hl and MMP-2 protein expression between the primary gastric carcinoma and the metastauc foci, So we want to study the significance and its regularity of heterogeneity on clinical therapy of GC.Gene nm23 is located at long arm of 17 chromatin, it produces NDPK protein. Many researchers considered nm23 as one of the anti-metastatic gene , but some investigators have different idea on this point.Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc-dependent endoproteinase whose enzymatic activity is directed against component of the extracellular matrix(ECM). MMP-2 with 72-KD has close relation to the tumor invasion and metastasis, it has the activity to degrade type IV collagenase of the basement and cellular matrix. MMP-2 may be known to enhance the tumor metastasis.Materials and Methods194 cases of GC patients with complete pathological data were obtained from Jan 1997 to June 2001. Among them, 177 cases of the GC were found with lymph node metastasis(20 cases with distant metastasis) and 17 cases without metastasis.The HE histopathological slices of the 177 case's primary cancer and the lymph node metastasis were analyzed retrospectively ,and then the heterogeneity were compared on the histopathology level.We used SP immunohistochemistry to detect the expression of MMP-2 and nm23-Hl proteins in the formalin-fixed paraffin-embeded priamry tumor of GC, metastatic lymph nodes and distant metastasis.The 61 cases with T3 stage according to the metastatic condition were divided into three groups:T3N0Mo group(no metastasis group) 17cases,T3N1.3M<) group (lymph nodes metastasis group)24cases,T3NsMi group(distant metastasis group)20 cases. We compare the expression of MMP-2 and nm23-Hl proteins in three different groups of GC in regard to primary tumor .. metastatic lymph nodes and distant metastasisThere's no differece among the three groups of the cases in regard to sex,age and the histopathology. The data were analysed with Nonparametric Test.Result and DiscussionThe result showed:The difference exists between the primary and metastatic lymph nodes of GC on the histology Ievel:(l)There's difference on the dommat histology type between the primary tumor and metastatic lymph node of GC. Poorly-difTeretiated adenocarcinoma exists in the metastatic lymph nodes much more than that in the priamry tumor.but mucious adenocarcinoma exsits much more in the primary tumor than that in the metastatic lymph nodes. (2) There's difference in the histological differential grade between the priamary and the metastatic lymph nodes. In the primary tumor of GC, there's significant difference between the primary tumor and the metastatic lymph nodes, the result shows that the metastatic lymph nodes differentiated poorer than that of the primary tumor,P=0.008(P<0.01).Expression of MMP-2 protein in the three different groups of GC:(l)MMP-2 protein localized in cytoplasma of gastric cancer cell, positive cell were also found in fibroblast cell and vasoendothelial cells. The positive rate of MMP-2 protein in the primary tumor of GC is 68.9%. .(2)The positive number of MMP-2 protein in...