Expression And Clinical Significance Of Gelsolin In Plasma And Tissue Of Patients With Colorectal Cancer

Objective: This study observes the expression of Gelsolin in the tissue andplasma of patients with colorectal cancer, and then analyzes the relationshipbetween the expression and clinical pathological features, includinghistological type, tumor infiltration depth, lymph node metastasis and Dukes’stage, etc. The study plans to explore the potential functions of Gelsolin in theoccurrence and development of colorectal cancer, and provide theoretical basisfor explaining the colorectal cancer. It’s also expected to find a usefulbiomarker of colorectal cancer, and to evaluate its clinical value on diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of colorectal cancer.Methods:228cases of patients with colorectal cancer from Jan2010toDec2011were collected from Tangshan Gongren Hospital affiliated to HebeiMedical University. All diagnosis was confirmed by pathologists in TangshanGongren Hospital and had completely clinical data. The tissue microarraytechnology was used to make paraffin blocks, which contained tumor tissuesand corresponding normal mucosa samples away from the tumor at least2cm.Some tissues were lost during the process of immunohistochemistry. SPimmunohistochemical technology was used to observe the expression ofGelsolin protein in residual tissues, including220cases of colorectal cancertissues and143cases of adjacent normal colorectal tissues.Fresh tissue samples of20colorectal adenocarcinomas and theircorresponding distant normal counterparts were obtained from TangshanGongren Hospital from May2011to Nov2012. The total RNA of tissues wasextracted and then the expressions of Gelsolin mRNA were detected byreal-time fluorescent quantitative Reverse Transcriptase PCR.The blood specimens of20cases of healthy volunteers and40patientswith colorectal cancer before surgery were collected. The plasma specimens were collected after centrifugal effect, and then the expression of plasmaGelsolin in these plasma specimens were detected by enzyme-linkedimmunoassay (ELISA).The measurement data are presented as mean±standard deviation, andenumeration data were expressed as a percentage. The association betweenGelsolin expression level and clinical pathological features of colorectalcancer were analyzed using SPSS13.0statistical software by differentstatistical methods, including gender, age, tumor size, histological types,differentiation, tumor infiltration depth, lymph node metastasis and Dukes’stage.Results:1.The expression of Gelsolin in the tissues of patients withcolorectal cancer: The expression of brown yellow materials in the cell isdefined positive expression. The expression of Gelsolin is detectable in normalcolon epithelium cells, as well as in endothelial cells and myocytes. Whencompared to normal epithelium, gelsolin expression is either completelyundetectable or much reduced in colorectal cancer tissue. At the cellular level,gelsolin expression is usually associated with the plasma membrane, and thecytoplasmic labeling is associated with goblet-like cells occasionally. Thepositive expression rate of Gelsolin in colorectal cancer tissue is63.64%(140/220), and in normal tissue it is96.50%(138/143). The difference ofexpression rate is statistically significant (P<0.05). The expression of Gelsolinin colorectal cancer tissue is associated with tumor infiltration depth andDukes’ stages. The expression of Gelsolin decreased significantly in thecancer localized in intestinal wall and in cancer of Dukes’ B, C or D stages.There is no correlation between the expression and the gender, age,pathological type, differentiation degree, lymph node metastasis, and tumorsize (P>0.05).2. The expression of Gelsolin mRNA in the tissues of patients withcolorectal cancer: The comparative ratio of Gelsolin mRNA expression incolorectal cancer tissues is0.0032±0.0003, and it is0.0039±0.0004in normalcolorectal mucosa tissue. The expression of Gelsolin mRNA in colorectal cancer tissue was significantly decreased. There was no statistical significancebetween the expression of Gelsolin mRNA and the clinical pathologicalfeatures of colorectal cancer, including the gender, age, histological types,differentiation and lymph node metastasis (P>0.05).3. The expression of Gelsolin in the plasma of patients with colorectalcancer: The average plasma Gelsolin level in colorectal cancer patients was318.15±40.71μg/ml, when that in healthy controls was250.85±21.65μg/ml,and the difference was statistically significant. The average plasma Gelsolinlevel in patients of Dukes’ A was275.75±31.92μg/ml, and Dukes’ B was300.89±21.64μg/ml and Dukes’ C was339.65±34.43μg/ml. The plasmaGelsolin level increased with the development of Dukes’ stages. Multiplepairwise comparison shows that the difference between the Dukes’ A andDukes’ C, Dukes’ B and Dukes’ C was statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusion:1. The expressions of Gelsolin mRNA and Gelsolin protein incolorectal cancer tissue were significantly reduced, but the expression ofplasma Gelsolin was up-regulated;2. The expressions of Gelsolin is associated with tumor infiltration depthand Dukes’ stage, that imply Gelsolin plays roles in tumor infiltration andprognosis of colorectal cancer;3. The positive expression of plasma Gelsolin in colorectal cancer patientsindicates it as a potential biomarker for colorectal cancer.