The Expression And Clinical Significance Of Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases In Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Objictive: To investigate the expression and activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases in non-small cell lung cancer and its clinical significance.Methods: Western blot was used to detect the expression of MAPKs (ERK1, ERK2, P-ERK, INK, P-JNK , P38 and P-P38) protein in the surgically resected in 52 patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Immunohistochemistry was used for localization of MAPKs protein.Results: The levels of ERK1, ERK2, P-ERK1/2, JNK, P-JNK and P-P38 protein in non-small cell lung cancer tissues were increased,which were 1.5, 1.8, 1.7, 2.3, 2.1 and 2.1 times compared with those in adjacent normal tisses respectively,and they all have remarkable difference(P<0.01). P-P38 was increased in all 52 cancer tissues, but there were no difference of the level of P38(P>0.05) between cancer tissues and corresponding normal tissues. Further study showed that the expression of P-P38 was not correlativity with tumor size,TNM staging,lymph node involvement, differentiation,pathologic type or smoking. Immunohistochemistry showed that ERK1 , ERK2, P-ERK, JNK, P-JNK and P38 protein were mainly located in cytoplasm and P-P38 were located in both cytoplasm and nucleus.Conclusions: MAPK signal transduction is correlative with human non-small cell lung cancer closely. The overactivity of P38 may play an important role in the development of human non-small cell lung cancer.