Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer (Feb 2008)
Expressions of Frat and beta-catenin in lung cancer and their clinicopathological correlations
Abstract
Background and objective Frat proteins are positive regulator of Wnt-signal transduction.By binding to GSK3,Frat prevents the phosphorylation and concomitant degradation of beta-catenin and allows the activation of downstream targetgenes by beta-catenin/TCF complexes. The aim of this study is to investigate the protein expression of Frat and beta-catenin and their clinicopathological correlations in lung cancer. Methods By means of tissue chip technique and immunohistochemical method, 52 cases of lung carcinoma were examed to detect the expression of Frat and beta-catenin. Results The positive expression rate of Frat was 75% . The positive expression rate of Frat in well,moderately and poorly differentiated NSCLCs were 41.67%(5/12), 83.33%(15/18) and 88.24%(15/17).There was a significant difference in Frat expression among well,moderately and poorly differentiated NSCLCs (Chiquare=9.229, P=0.01). The abnormal cell expression rate of beta-catenin was 71.15%. The abnormal cell expression rate ofbeta-catenin in well,moderately and poorly differentiated NSCLCs were 41.67%(5/12), 61.11%(11/18) and 100%(17/17). There was a significant difference (Chiquare=12.601, P=0.002). Conclusion The abnormal cell expression of beta-catenin is associated with pooly differentiated NSCLCs. The expression of Frat is positively correlated with the degreeof tumor differentiation and the abnormal cell expression of beta-catenin.
