BACKGROUND Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a recently identified growth factor with significant angiogenic properties, is a multifunctional angiogenic cytokine that is expressed in many tumors. High VEGF expression has been shown to correlate with the incidence of metastasis and poor prognosis in various cancers. In this study, the authors investigated VEGF expression and microvessel density (MVD) in ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma and examined the correlations among VEGF expression, clinicopathologic factors, and clinical outcome. The authors especially focused on the correlation between VEGF expression and liver metastasis. METHODS Paraffin embedded tumor specimens of 142 surgically resected pancreas carcinoma were immunohistochemically stained for VEGF and MVD. The correlations among VEGF expression and MVD, clinicopathologic factors, and clinical outcome were then statistically analyzed. RESULTS One hundred thirty‐two (93%) of 142 ductal pancreatic adenocarcinomas were positive for VEGF protein by immunohistochemistry. A significant correlation was observed between VEGF positivity and MVD (P < 0.0001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated a significant association between high VEGF expression and liver metastasis (P = 0.010) but no other factors, such as age, tumor size, histologic type, lymph node metastasis, venous invasion, neural invasion, peritoneal metastasis, or local recurrence. Patients with tumors that showed moderate or high VEGF expression had significantly shorter survival than patients with low VEGF expression or none at all in their tumors (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that VEGF expression is closely correlated with MVD and seems to be an important predictor for both liver metastasis and poor prognosis in ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Cancer 2000;88:2239–45. © 2000 American Cancer Society.

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Recent efforts have focused on the use of sericin proteins extracted from cocoons of silkworm as a healthy food source for human consumption. In this study, we focused on the antioxidative properties of sericin proteins. The antioxidative properties were measured in sericin proteins extracted from the shell of the cocoon, designated hereafter as white sericin protein and yellow-green sericin protein, as well as bread without sericin protein and bread to which white sericin powder had been added using four measurement methods: 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), chemiluminescence, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and electron spin resonance (ESR). High antioxidative properties of sericin proteins were indicated by all four methods. A comparison of the two types of sericin proteins revealed that yellow-green sericin protein exhibited high antioxidative properties as indicated by the DPPH, chemiluminescence and ORAC methods. By contrast, a higher antioxidative property was determined in white sericin protein by the ESR method. Consequently, our findings confirmed that sericin proteins have antioxidative properties against multiple radicals. In addition, the antioxidative property of bread was enhanced by the addition of sericin powder to the bread. Therefore, findings of this study suggest that sericin proteins may be efficiently used as beneficial food for human health.

bcl-2 overexpression in synovial sarcomas has been recently reported. Although it is widely known that bcl-2 suppresses apoptosis in various cells, there are no studies that have examined the significance of apoptosis in synovial sarcoma. In the present study, we visualized apoptotic tumor cells by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate in situ nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method in 49 cases of primary synovial sarcoma. The degree of apoptosis was analyzed in relation to several clinicopathologic parameters, cell proliferative activity, and immunohistochemical expression of apoptosis-related proteins, including bcl-2, bax, bcl-x, bak, p53, p21 (WAF1/CIP1), Fas, and Fas ligand. TUNEL index (TUNEL-I) significantly correlated with the mitotic index (MI) (ñ ‫؍‬ 0.60, P < .0001) and Ki-67 labeling index (MIB1-I) (ñ ‫؍‬ 0.52, P ‫؍‬ 0.0005). There was a highly significant association between high TUNEL-I value (>.8%) and poor prognosis (log-rank test; P < .0001). Many synovial sarcomas were diffusely positive for bcl-2 family proteins (bcl-2, bax, bcl-x, and bak) and were negative or only sporadically positive for Fas, Fas ligand, p53, and p21 (WAF1/CIP1) proteins. The results indicated that increased rate of apoptosis in primary synovial sarcoma was considered to be an indicator of poor prognosis. In addition, apoptosis in synovial sarcoma may be controlled by multiple apoptosis-regulating mechanisms, including the bcl-2 family.