Expression Of Twist And E-cadherin In Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma And Its Clinical Significance

Papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) is the most common thyroid neoplasm, which accounts for 80% all thyroid cancers.Twist is an oncogene which influences the apoptosis of the tumour cell.It is also a key factor in the course of epithelial mesenchymal transition(EMT),which plays a central role in the invasion and metastasis of the carcinoma.E-cadherin is an epithelial cell adhesion molecule located on the lateral border of epithelial cells .E-cadherin plays a crucial role in the maintenance of the epithelial junctional complex and is as such an important molecule in maintaining epithelia integrity.The expression of E-cadherin might be an important parameter for the determination of the invasive potential of epithelial neoplasms.In our study,immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of Twist and E-cadherin in thyroid diseases and explore their relationship with clinicopathological factors.METHODS:Twist and E-cadherin were detected in papillary thyroid carcinomas(n=60), nodular goiter(n=40), benign papillary lesions(n=40) by immunohistochemical staining. Statistical analysisχ2 test,Fisher exact probabilities and Spearman correlation analysis were used with SPSS 13.0 soft ware.P<0.05 was considered statistically significance.RESULTS:1.In papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC),positive rate of Twist was 81.67%(49/60);in nodular goiter(NG),positive rate was 0%(0/40);in benign papillary lesions(BPL),positive rate was 7.5%(3/40).There were statistic significance compared PTC with NG and BPL.2. In PTC, positive rate of E-cadherin was 21.67%(13/60); in NG, positive rate was 87.50%(35/40); in benign papillary lesions(BPL), positive rate was 100%(40/40).There were statistic significance compared PTC with NG and BPL.3. The positive expression of Twist and E-cadherin were both related to lymph node metastasis(P<0.05) . While they were not correlated with age and tumour size.4. CorrelationsThe expression of Twist showed negative correlation with E-cadherin (r=-0.796, P<0.001) CONCLUSION:1. The positive rate of Twist was 81.67% in PTC.It was higher than that in NG(0%) and BPL(7.5%).Twist expression in PTC was much higher than that in NG and BPL,which showed that the detection of Twist expression should be a diagnostic marker in the pathologica diagnosis of PTC.Twist expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis,which showed that the overexpression of Twist might be related to the biological behaviour of PTC.2.The positive rate of E-cadherin was 21.67% in PTC.It was much lower than that in NG(87.50%) and BPL(100%).E-cadherin expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis.The expression of E-cadherinwas lower in PTC with lymph node metastasis than that in PTC without lymph node metastasis.All that indicated there might exist dysfunction of E-cadherin in epithelial cells of PTC.The absence and dysfunction of E-cadherin were closely related to lymph node metastasis.One of the prerequisites for the release of carcinoma cells from the primary site might be a defect in intercellular adhesion mediated by the absence of E-cadherin expression.3. Correlations between Twist and E-cadherinThe expression of Twist showed negative correlation with E-cadherin(r=-0.796, P<0.001).Twist expression in PTC was increased and E-cadherin was reduced.There were both statistic significance when compared with NG and BPL.It suggested that the overexpression of Twist and downexpression of E-cadherin might play important roles in the tumourigenesis of PTC.