Gastric Cancer
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2004. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 1, 2004; 10(21): 3094-3098
Published online Nov 1, 2004. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v10.i21.3094
Expression of survivin in primary and metastatic gastric cancer cells obtained by laser capture microdissection
Zhen-Ning Wang, Hui-Mian Xu, Li Jiang, Xin Zhou, Chong Lu, Xue Zhang
Zhen-Ning Wang, Li Jiang, Xue Zhang, The Research Center for Medical Genomics and MOH Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Zhen-Ning Wang, Hui-Mian Xu, Xin Zhou, Chong Lu, Department of Surgical Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Xue Zhang, Department of Medical Genetics and National Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by the Nationa l 973 Program of China, No. G1998051203, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, No. 30125017, and the MOE TRAPOYT Program of China, No. 1999-96
Correspondence to: Dr. Xue Zhang, The Research Center for Medical Genomics, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China. xuezhang@pumc.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-10-86319731 Fax: +86-10-65124876
Received: September 6, 2003
Revised: October 15, 2003
Accepted: October 22, 2003
Published online: November 1, 2004
Abstract

AIM: Survivin, a recently identified member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, is expressed during development and in various human cancers. However, its expression in normal tissues and clinical relevance in cancers are still debated. In the present study, we analyzed the expression of the survivin gene in human primary and metastatic gastric cancer cells as well as in paired epithelial cells from normal gastric mucosa by means of a novel laser capture microdissection (LCM) technique coupled with reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

METHODS: Thirty patients who had undergone gastrectomy with lymph node dissection for gastric cancer without preoperative treatments were included. Neoplastic tissue, metastatic lymph nodes, and apparently uninvolved normal tissue were collected from each patient. LCM-captured “pure” cell groups were respectively subjected to RT-PCR analysis with primers specific for the survivin gene.

RESULTS: Of the paired samples from 30 gastric cancer patients studied, 24 (80%) primary gastric cancer cell groups and 7 (23%) adjacent morphologically “normal” gastric epithelial cell groups were shown to have a detectable survivin expression. There was a statistically significant difference in suvivin expression between these two groups (P < 0.01). Meanwhile, 95% (19/20) of the metastatic gastric cancer cell groups from lymph nodes had a clear expression of the survivin gene. However, no significant correlation between survivin expression and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer was observed in the present study.

CONCLUSION: Survivin expression is present in the majority of gastric cancer cell groups obtained by LCM techniques. The high expression rate in metastatic lesions suggests a possible role of survivin in cancer invasiveness and metastasis. It may contribute to the detection of gastric cancer micrometastasis as a potential molecular marker. In addition, the high expression percentage renders survivin a potential target in the therapy for gastric cancer.

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