Tumor Suppressor Gene Maspin Induces Apoptosis in Stomach and Colon Cancer

Abstract

: The tumor suppressor gene maspin serves to inhibit cancer infiltration/metastasis, and maspin's involvement in apoptosis-inducing action has been noted. In the current research, we studied the relationship between maspin expression and apoptosis using clinical specimens of stomach and colon cancer. Subjects were 39 cases of stomach cancer (20 cases of early cancer, 19 cases of advanced cancer) and 36 cases of colon cancer (16 cases of early cancer, 20 cases of advanced cancer) in which the cancer was surgically resected. We performed immunohistochemical staining of maspin and ss-DNA for apoptotic cell extraction. Based on the degree of maspin expression, we classified subjects into a high expression and low expression group, calculated the number of ss-DNA-positive cells for both, and compared the proportion of these cells. In early stomach cancer, the proportion of ss-DNA-positive cells was significantly higher in the group with high maspin expression (high expression group vs. low expression group 0.014 vs. 0.005; P = 0.022). In advanced cancer, a significant difference was not found (0.013 vs. 0.005: P = 0.09). However, the proportion of such cells with advanced stomach cancer tended to be high in high expression groups. With colon cancer, the proportion of ss-DNA-positive cells with both early and advanced cancer was significantly higher in the group with high maspin expression (early cancer 0.009 vs. 0.002, P = 0.021; advanced cancer 0.012 vs. 0.003, P = 0.006) . Results suggested that the expression of maspin in both stomach and colon cancer may induce apoptosis regardless of the extent of the tumor. Future study of molecular therapies targeting maspin is anticipated for cancer that is difficult to cure surgically.

Clinicopathological Study of Serrated Polyps of the Colorectum,with Special Reference to Maspin Expression

“…Nevertheless, the clinicopathological features of each This is the rst paper to investigate and discuss the expression of maspin in colorectal serrated polyps. In previous studies we have demonstrated maspin expression at a high rate in several metaplastic, dysplastic, and precancerous lesions, such as esophageal dysplasia, gastric intestinal metaplasia and adenoma, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, intraductal papillary-mucinous adenoma, and colorectal adenoma [11][12][13][14][15][16] . Zheng et al 18 and Boltze 19 have also reported a high rate of maspin expression in specimens of colorectal adenomas.…”

“…Recently, it has been demonstrated that downregulation of maspin expression correlates with progression and metastatic status in several cancers 10 11 . We have also studied the expression pattern of maspin in the esophagus, stomach, colorectum, pancreas, and lung [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] , where a high rate of maspin expression is commonly observed during cancer formation from precancerous lesions, and maspin expression tends to be suppressed when invasion and metastasis of cancer cells occurs. Similar results in the colorectum have been previously reported by several authors 18 19 .…”