This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Qing-Guo Yan, Jian-Guo Shi, Gao-Sheng Huang, Chuan-Shan Zhang, Qing Li, Pei-Zhen Hu, Wen-Liang Wang, Department of Pathology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710033, Shaanxi Province, China
Supported by: National Natural Science Foundation, No. 39270744.
Correspondence to: Wen-Liang Wang, Department of Pathology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, No.169 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710033, Shaanxi Province, China. wlwang@fmmu.edu.cn
Received: March 6, 2003 Revised: March 20, 2003 Accepted: March 25, 2003 Published online: August 15, 2003
AIM
To detect the expression of apoptosis related proteins BAG-1 and BAD and to investigate their functions of apoptosis modulation and relations to tumor differentiation in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
METHODS
Quantitative in situ methods of DAKO EnvisionTM Systems immunohistochemistry in combination with computer-assisted image analysis and apoptotic cells counting were used to observe the expression levels of BAG-1 and BAD and the apoptosis indexes in 42 cases of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
RESULTS
The expression levels of BAG-1 and BAD were measured with average absorbance (A) derived from the quantitative image analysis. Among 24, 13 and 5 cases of well, moderately and poorly differentiated extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas, the average A of BAG-1 was respectively 0.068±0.037, 0.112±0.057 and 0.152±0.062, of BAD was respectively 0.079±0.053, 0.138±0.058 and 0.165±0.061, and the apoptotic indexes examined in the hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained specimens were respectively 1.1±0.5, 1.7±0.3 and 3.5±1.3. The expression levels of BAG-1 and BAD and the apoptotic indexes were increased obviously from well, moderately to poorly differentiated extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (P<0.05). The expression level of BAD was correlated to the apoptotic indexes (P<0.01).
CONCLUSION
Expressions of BAG-1 and BAD and apoptosis indexes were all associated with differentiation of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. BAG-1 and BAD may take part in the apoptosis modulation of the tumor.
Key Words: N/A
Citation: Yan QG, Shi JG, Huang GS, Zhang CS, Li Q, Hu PZ, Wang WL. In situ quantitative study of BAG-1 and BAD in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Shijie Huaren Xiaohua Zazhi 2003; 11(8): 1144-1147
BAG-1在大部分正常人体组织表达很弱或不表达, 但在大多数肿瘤细胞系, 如白血病、乳腺癌、前列腺癌、直肠癌等均有表达, 表明BAG-1表达与肿瘤的恶性转化密切相关. BAG-1在各种肿瘤中的表达具有不同的意义. Townsend et al [17]研究发现160例乳腺癌中92% BAG-1免疫组化阳性; Turner et al [18]发现BAG-1在乳腺癌中表达较正常乳腺增强, 且有意义的是表达强者长期生存率高和无转移生存时间长. Rorke et al [19]则发现BAG-1表达与非小细胞肺癌的预后有关, 胞质强阳性者预后较好. Shindoh et al [20]发现在鳞状细胞癌中转移的病例较未转移者表达高, 在高级别的较低级别的表达高. 本实验中BAG-1在高中低分化的肝外胆管癌中的表达阳性率和定量检测的表达水平逐渐增强, 表明细胞分化越低, BAG-1的表达越趋于增强, 此结果与乳腺癌[17,18]和鳞状细胞癌[20]中的情况相似, 这可能由于较低分化的肿瘤恶性程度较高, 相应的抗凋亡机制也有所增强, 因此抗凋亡蛋白的表达较强. 在较低分化的胆管癌中细胞凋亡指数较高, 而抗凋亡蛋白BAG-1的表达较强, 这似乎是矛盾的, 但实际上凋亡调控是一个复杂的网络, 细胞凋亡是众多抗凋亡和促凋亡蛋白表达产物综合作用的结果.
BAD在多种肿瘤中的表达及其作用的研究已有较多报道. 例如, Ichinose et al [22]发现BAD蛋白磷酸化后失活, 失活后的BAD可加剧胶质母细胞瘤和前列腺癌的恶性转化. Kohler et al [23]则发现BAX和BAD的高表达与急性白血病的预后不良相关, 可以作为一个预后指标. 在BCL-2和BCL-xl过表达的情况下, BAD可直接诱导细胞凋亡, 具有治疗意义[24]; 在直肠癌组织中BAD与BCL-2的异二聚体减少有助于癌的进展, 促凋亡的BAX和BAD与抗凋亡的BCL-2和BCL-xl竞争性形成二聚体调节凋亡[25]. 本研究中BAD在肝外胆管癌中的表达阳性率及定量检测的表达水平呈现出肿瘤分化越低表达越强的特征, 而BAD作为一种促凋亡蛋白, 其表达产物发挥促凋亡作用, 这与在较低分化的肝外胆管癌中肿瘤细胞的凋亡指数也逐渐增多是一致的.
Tannapfel A, Wittekind C. Genes involved in hepatocellular carcinoma: deregulation in cell cycling and apoptosis.Virchows Arch. 2002;440:345-352.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Li ZY, Zou SQ. Fas counterattack in cholangiocarcinoma: a mechanism for immune evasion in human hilar cholangiocarcinomas.World J Gastroenterol. 2001;7:860-863.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Okuda K, Nakanuma Y, Miyazaki M. Cholangiocarcinoma: recent progress. Part 2: molecular pathology and treatment.J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2002;17:1056-1063.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Ahn EY, Pan G, Vickers SM, McDonald JM. IFN-gamma upregulates apoptosis-related molecules and enhances Fas-mediated apoptosis in human cholangiocarcinoma.Int J Cancer. 2002;100:445-451.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Kanno N, Glaser S, Chowdhury U, Phinizy JL, Baiocchi L, Francis H, LeSage G, Alpini G. Gastrin inhibits cholangiocarcinoma growth through increased apoptosis by activation of Ca2+-dependent protein kinase C-alpha.J Hepatol. 2001;34:284-291.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Utaisincharoen P, Tangthawornchaikul N, Ubol S, Chaisuriya P, Sirisinha S. TNF-alpha induces caspase 3 (CPP 32) dependent apoptosis in human cholangiocarcinoma cell line.Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 2000;31:167-170.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Ito Y, Takeda T, Sasaki Y, Sakon M, Monden M, Yamada T, Ishiguro S, Imaoka S, Tsujimoto M, Matsuura N. Bcl-2 expression in cholangiocellular carcinoma is inversely correlated with biologically aggressive phenotypes.Oncology. 2000;59:63-67.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Lin J, Hutchinson L, Gaston SM, Raab G, Freeman MR. BAG-1 is a novel cytoplasmic binding partner of the membrane form of heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor: a unique role for proHB-EGF in cell survival regulation.J Biol Chem. 2001;276:30127-30132.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Cutress RI, Townsend PA, Brimmell M, Bateman AC, Hague A, Packham G. BAG-1 expression and function in human cancer.Br J Cancer. 2002;87:834-839.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Townsend PA, Dublin E, Hart IR, Kao RH, Hanby AM, Cutress RI, Poulsom R, Ryder K, Barnes DM, Packham G. BAG-1 expression in human breast cancer: interrelationship between BAG-1 RNA, protein, HSC70 expression and clinico-pathological data.J Pathol. 2002;197:51-59.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Shindoh M, Adachi M, Higashino F, Yasuda M, Hida K, Nishioka T, Ono M, Takayama S, Reed JC, Imai K. BAG-1 expression correlates highly with the malignant potential in early lesions (T1 and T2) of oral squamous cell carcinoma.Oral Oncol. 2000;36:444-449.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Ichinose M, Liu XH, Hagihara N, Youle RJ. Extracellular BAD fused to toxin transport domains induces apoptosis.Cancer Res. 2002;62:1433-1438.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Schimmer AD, Hedley DW, Pham NA, Chow S, Minden MD. BAD induces apoptosis in cells over-expressing Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL without loss of mitochondrial membrane potential.Leuk Lymphoma. 2001;42:429-443.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Hattori T, Ookawa N, Fujita R, Fukuchi K. Heterodimerization of Bcl-2 and Bcl-X(L) with Bax and BAD in colorectal cancer.Acta Oncol. 2000;39:495-500.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Hou L, Li Y, Jia YH, Wang B, Xin Y, Ling MY, L S. Molecular mechanism about lymphogenous metastasis of hepatocarcinoma cells in mice.World J Gastroenterol. 2001;7:532-536.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Li HL, Chen DD, Li XH, Zhang HW, Lu YQ, Ye CL, Ren XD. Changes of NF-kB, p53, Bcl-2 and caspase in apoptosis induced by JTE-522 in human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line AGS cells: role of reactive oxygen species.World J Gastroenterol. 2002;8:431-435.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Guo XZ, Shao XD, Liu MP, Xu JH, Ren LN, Zhao JJ, Li HY, Wang D. Effect of bax, bcl-2 and bcl-xL on regulating apoptosis in tissues of normal liver and hepatocellular carcinoma.World J Gastroenterol. 2002;8:1059-1062.
[PubMed] [DOI]
Okaro AC, Fennell DA, Corbo M, Davidson BR, Cotter FE. Pk11195, a mitochondrial benzodiazepine receptor antagonist, reduces apoptosis threshold in Bcl-X(L) and Mcl-1 expressing human cholangiocarcinoma cells.Gut. 2002;51:556-561.
[PubMed] [DOI]