Gastric Cancer
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2004. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 15, 2004; 10(22): 3245-3250
Published online Nov 15, 2004. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v10.i22.3245
Expression level of wild-type survivin in gastric cancer is an independent predictor of survival
Hua Meng, Cai-De Lu, Yu-Lei Sun, De-Jian Dai, Sang-Wong Lee, Nobuhiko Tanigawa
Hua Meng, De-Jian Dai, Department of Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang Province, China
Cai-De Lu, Department of Surgery, Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University Medical School, Ningbo 315040, Zhejiang Province, China
Yu-Lei Sun, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical College, Hohhot 010059, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
Sang-Wong Lee, Nobuhiko Tanigawa, Department of General and Gastroenterological Surgery, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.30271483 and Grant-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan, No.13470262
Correspondence to: Cai-De Lu, M.D., Department of Surgery, Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University Medical School, Ningbo 315040, Zhejiang Province, China. lucd71@hotmail.com
Telephone: +86-574-87392290 Ext.7707 Fax: +86-574-87392232
Received: October 30, 2003
Revised: December 4, 2003
Accepted: December 16, 2003
Published online: November 15, 2004
Abstract

AIM: Survivin is a novel antiapoptotic gene in which three splicing variants have been recently cloned and characterized. Survivin has been found to be abundantly expressed in a wide variety of human malignancies, whereas it is undetectable in normal adult tissues. We aimed to study the expression of three survivin splicing variants in gastric cancer, and to evaluate the prognostic significance of the expression of survivin variants in gastric cancer.

METHODS: Real time quantitative RT-PCR was performed to analyze the expression of survivin variants in 79 paired tumors and normal gastric mucosa samples at the mRNA level. Proliferative and apoptotic activity was measured using Ki-67 immunohistochemical analysis and the TUNEL method, respectively.

RESULTS: All the cases tested expressed wild-type survivin mRNA, which was not only the dominant transcript, but also a poor prognostic biomarker (P = 0.003). Non-antiapoptostic survivin-2B mRNA was correlated with tumor stage (P = 0.001), histological type (P = 0.004), and depth of tumor invasion (P = 0.041), while survivin-△Ex3 mRNA showed a significant association with apoptosis (P = 0.02).

CONCLUSION: Wild-type survivin mRNA expression levels are of important prognostic value and significant participation of survivin-2B and survivin-△Ex3 is suggested in gastric cancer development.

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