A Study Of E-cadherin And β-catenin Expression And Their Correlation With Prognosis Of Adenocarcinoma Of The Gallbladder

Objective To investigate the protein and mRNA expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in adenoc-arcinoma of the gallbladder and to find their correlation "with differentiation, metastasis, TNM staging and prognosis. Methods High-sensitive SP immunohistoche-mical method and in situ hybridization were used to detect the protein and mRNA expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin. Results Immuno-histochemistry revealed that among the 60 cases, the positive rates of E-cadherin and β-catenin were 40% and 45% respectively. The abnormal expression rates of these two proteins were 58.3 % and 63.3 % respectively. There was no significant relationship between E-cadherin and β-catenin staining and histological type of the tumor (F >0.05) . However, there was a statistically significant difference between well and moderately differentiated cells and poorly differentiated cells (P < 0.05 ) . In cases with lymphatic metastasis, the abnormal expression rates of E-cadherin and β-catenin were significantly higher than those in nonmetastatic cases ( P < 0.05 ) . The mean survival time in cases with abnormal E-cadherin and β-catenin expression was significantly shorter than that in cases with the expression grading (++ ) ~ ( ) . In situ hybridization showed that in adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder, the positive rate of E-cadherin and β-catenin mRNA was 60% and 40% respectively. Their concordance rates with ( ) ~ ( ) protein expression were 78.8 % and 82.4%, respectively. Conclusion The concordance rate of E-cadherin and β-catenin mRNA and protein expression was relatively high. They can be used as markers for prognosing adenocarcinoma of gallbladder in clinical practice.