Expression And Significance Of CTGF And PCNP In Pancreatic Carcinoma

BackgroundPancreatic cancer is a relatively common gastrointestinal malignancy with threecharacteristics: it usually has a hidden location and lacks of early typical symptoms; it can notbe diagnosed in advance and it spreads quickly; the patients have a very short survival timeand it causes the high mortality rate. In recent years, its incidence shows a rising trend, anincrease of about15%every10years. People more than40years old will be easily attackedby Pancreatic cancer, while the youngsters won’t. It is common in men and the ratio betweenmale and female is2-4:1. Pancreatic cancer shows the higher incidence in United States andEurope and it is also one of the main causes of tumor death in Europe, North America andother developed countries. The incidence of pancreatic cancer has also considerably increasedboth in Japan and China.PEST-containing nuclear protein (PCNP) is a nuclein which mainly exists in nucleolus.There is also a kind of protein ligase with ubiquitination ability in it. The study found thatPCNP is not only associated with the regulation of the cell cycle, but also involved in cellproliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, metastasis, gene expression, transcriptional regulationand the regulation of signal transduction.CTGF (connective tissue growth factor), initially discovered by Bradham et al in1991, isa secreted protein separated from the culture medium of human umbilical vein endothelial cell.CTGF is an early member of the CCN family and is also called CCN2, which consists of349amino acid residues. Besides, it is rich in cysteine heparin-binding secretory polypeptide. Itsrelative molecular mass is36-38KD and its secretion comes from the Golgi apparatus. Theinitial study found that CTGF appears chemotaxis to fibroblast and it can promote the mitosis of fibroblast. Then, it is also found that according to different cell types, CTGF can alsopromote cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. Recently, studies have further foundthat CTGF is closely related to the occurrence and development of fibrosis of many tissuesand organs, including blood vessels, skin, heart, kidney, pancreas, lung and liver.Currently there are a large number of studies over the relationship between theexpression of CTGF in pancreatic cancer and its correlative factors, but few studies explorethat whether there is a correlation between the expression of CTGF and PCNP in pancreaticcancer. Our experiments will study the role of CTGF and PCNP in the incidence of pancreaticcancer and explore their interrelation in pancreatic cancer.AimsCollect pancreatic surgical resection specimens, culture pancreatic cancer cell lines(Panc-1) in vitro, observe the expression of CTGF and PCNP in pancreatic carcinoma andanalyze the significance and relevance of both expression in pancreatic cancer. It alsoprovides clues to the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer and provides a theoretical basis forpancreatic cancer’s diagnosis, treatment and new drugs research and development.Methods1. Using immunohistochemical technique, detect every clinical stage of pancreaticsurgical resection specimens and the expression of CTGF and PCNP in the adjacenttissues of pancreatic cancer; analyse the correlation to the expression level and thepatient’s clinical stages, hyphology classification and transformation.2. Using PCR, detect the gene expression difference of the stable pancreatic Panc-1cells and the control group. Study the relationship the expression of protein in CTGFand PCNP by Western blot. Using MTT and FCM, detect the influence on the growth,proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of Panc-1cells. Results1.CTGF is expressed mainly in endochylema or cytomembrane，also in interstitial cell.In Pancreatic carcinomas，the Positivity rate of CTGF was81.01%while the rate was11.1%in the adjacent tissues of pancreatic cancer. Therefore, there is a statisticalsignificance (P <0.05).2. PCNP is expressed mainly in the nucleus. In Pancreatic carcinomas，the Positivity rateof CTGF was78.37%while the rate was22.2%in the adjacent tissues of pancreaticcancer. Therefore, there is a statistical significant (P <0.05).3. In pancreatic carcinoma, the expression of CTGF and PCNP is related to lymph nodemetastasis and clinical stage. Therefore, there is a correlation between the expressionof CTGF and PCNP (P <0.05).4. Western blotting has detected the expression of CTGF and PCNP protein in PancreaticPanc-1cells is higher than that of the control group.Conclusions1. It presents significant differences on the positive expression of CTGF in pancreaticcarcinoma cancer and adjacent tissues, which is relative to the clinical stage ofpancreatic cancer and lymph node metastasis.2. It presents significant differences on the positive expression of PCNP in pancreaticcarcinoma cancer and adjacent tissues, which is relative to the clinical stage ofpancreatic cancer and lymph node metastasis.3. There is a correlation between the expression of CTGF and PCNP in pancreaticcarcinoma. Their abnormal expression may be associated with tumor growth andmetastasis. Detecting the expression of CTGF and PCNP in tumor tissue contributes to provide clues of the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer and a theoretical basis forpancreatic diagnosis, treatment, and research and development of new drugs...