The Expression Of Tbx2 In Pancreatic Cancers And Its Regulation By Wnt/β-catenin Signaling

Objective:This study was designed to investigate the expression of Tbx2 in pancreatic cancer tissues and evaluate its relationship with clinic pathological features of the disease. We also have tested the hypothesis that Wnt/?-catenin signaling regulates human TBX2 gene.Methods:The expression of Tbx2 in pancreatic cancer tissues were studied by immunohistochemistry and the relationship of Tbx2 expression with the clinic pathological characteristics was analyzed. we performed immunohistochemistry to explore the expression of Tbx2 and ?-catenin in pancreatic carcinoma cell lines SW1990; then SW1990 was cultured with different concentration of lithium chloride, the effects of lithium chloride on the TBX2 and ?-catenin were studied by RT-PCR and Western blot.Results:The positive rates of Tbx2 were 7.7% (1/13) in normal pancreatic tissues and 69.39% (34/49) in cancer tissues, the difference between them was significant (P<0.01).The expression level of Tbx2 had a significant positive relationship with tumor differentiation degree and clinical stage, but with no difference between the sex, age and the diseased region; Tbx2 and ?-catenin were expressing in SW1990; Lithium chloride can increase the expression of ?-catenin , Tbx2 and c-myc (P <0.05); the expressing of Tbx2 was increasing accompany with ?-catenin (r=0.583, P<0.05).Conclusions:The expression of Tbx2 enhanced in the pancreatic cancers may be one of the important mechanisms of the occurrence and development of pancreatic cancers; the up-regulation of TBX2 by ?-catenin, further expand the existing and rather extensive regulatory network of Wnt/?-catenin signaling pathway, it provides a new pathway for the further research of TBX2.