Pathobiological significance of vascular endothelial growth factor and Maspin expressions in human gastric carcinoma

The paradoxical role of SERPINB5 in gastrointestinal cancers: oncogene or tumor suppressor?

BACKGROUND

SERPINB5, also known as Maspin, is a non-inhibitory member of the serine protease inhibitor superfamily. SERPINB5 exerts diverse effects on a variety of human cancers, including cell proliferation, angiogenesis, apoptosis, tumor invasion, and metastasis. SERPINB5 has traditionally been regarded as a tumor suppressor gene, but emerging evidences supports its oncogenic properties.

METHODS

We conducted a comprehensive review of the existing literature on SERPINB5 in gastrointestinal cancers, synthesizing data on its expression patterns, subcellular localization, epigenetic modifications, and clinical significance.

RESULTS

Depending on its subcellular localization and epigenetic modifications, SERPINB5 demonstrate either protumor or antitumor activity in different gastrointestinal cancers, such as colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, gallbladder cancer and liver cancer. We elucidate its potential as a predictive and prognostic biomarker, with a focus on its implications for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic intervention, emphasizing its utility in early lesion detection and treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

SERPINB5 plays a complex and context-dependent role in gastrointestinal cancers, highlighting further research to dissect the true significance of SERPINB5 expression and the molecular mechanisms underlying its divergent clinical behaviors in cancer.

Expression of VEGF with tumor incidence, metastasis and prognosis in human gastric carcinoma

OBJECTIVE

To analysis the expression of VEGF in gastric carcinoma cell and tumor tissue, our study determined the relationship between the expression of VEGF and tumor incidence, metastasis and prognosis in human gastric carcinoma.

METHODS

Treatment of ZD6474 at dose of 30 μmol/L was performed in gastric carcinoma cell BGC823. qPCR and Western-blot were used to analysis the mRNA and protein expression of VEGF. MTT, wound healing and Transwell experiments were conducted to study the effect of VEGF on tumor incidence, metastasis and prognosis. Sixty patients with gastric cancer were selected as the gastric cancer group, and 30 patients with gastric ulcer receiving main gastric resection were selected as control group. The survival curve of patients with gastric cancer in five years was recorded. The correlation between expression of VEGF to incidence, metastasis and prognosis of gastric cancer was evaluated by Cox multifactor regression.

RESULTS

The mRNA and protein expression of VEGF in treatment group were significantly lower than that of control group (P< 0.01). The results of MTT, wound healing and Transwell experiments were showed that the cell proliferation, migration and invasion capacity in treatment group were significantly reduced compared to that of the control group (P< 0.01). The 5-year survival rate for patients with VEGF positive expression was significantly decreased compared to the patients with VEGF expression negative (P< 0.01). The tumor size, differentiation, lymph node metastasis and tumor stage were statistically related to VEGF level (P< 0.05). The results of Cox regression multifactor analysis showed that lymph node metastasis, tumor staging and the expression of VEGF were significantly associated to the prognosis of gastric cancer patients (P< 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Our data demonstrated that the expression of VEGF was significantly related to the tumor incidence, metastasis and prognosis of patients with gastric cancer, which provides new leads to the diagnosis of gastric cancer.

The roles of maspin expression in gastric cancer: a meta- and bioinformatics analysis

Maspin is a mammary serine protease inhibitor that is encoded by human SERPINB5 gene, and inhibits invasion and metastasis of cancer cells as a tumor suppressor. We performed a systematic meta- and bioinformatics analysis through multiple online databases up to Feb 10, 2017. We found down-regulated maspin expression in gastric cancer, compared with normal mucosa and dysplasia (p < 0.05). Maspin expression was negatively correlated with depth of invasion, TNM staging and dedifferentiation of gastric cancer (p < 0.05). Nuclear maspin expression was higher in intestinal- than diffuse-type carcinoma (p < 0.05). An inverse association between maspin expression and unfavorable overall survival was found in patients with gastric cancer (p < 0.005). According to bioinformatics databases, SERPINB5 mRNA expression was higher in gastric cancer than normal tissues (p < 0.05), and negatively correlated with depth of invasion, TNM staging and dedifferentiation of gastric cancer (p < 0.05). According to KM plotter, we found that a higher SERPINB5 expression was positively correlated with overall and progression-free survival rates of all cancer patients, even stratified by aggressive parameters (p < 0.05). These findings indicated that maspin expression might be employed as a potential marker to indicate gastric carcinogenesis, subsequent progression, and even prognosis.

Nuclear, compared with combined nuclear and cytoplasmic expression of maspin, is linked in lung adenocarcinoma to reduced VEGF-A levels and in Stage I, improved survival

AIMS

To evaluate whether there is a correlation between the subcellular localization of maspin and the histological, molecular and biological features of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, particularly addressing the hypothesis that the tumour inhibitor properties of maspin may be linked to a nuclear, compared with a combined nuclear and cytoplasmic expression pattern.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The subcellular expression of maspin was determined in 80 resected pulmonary adenocarcinomas (Stage I, 46; Stage II, 10; Stage III, 20; Stage IV, 4) and correlated with histological grade, proliferative rate, p53 expression, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A levels, and prognosis (mean follow-up of 41.5 months). Cases with nuclear (N) maspin (n = 47), compared with the [N + cytoplasmic (C)] group (n = 28), showed lower (P

CONCLUSIONS

(N) maspin selects lung adenocarcinomas with distinct molecular and clinical features, supporting the hypothesis that its tumour inhibitor properties may be linked to its nuclear localization.

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Key Words

• lung adenocarcinoma
• maspin
• p53
• prognosis
• stage i
• subcellular localization
• vegf-a

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MESH Headings

• Adenocarcinoma/metabolism
• Adenocarcinoma/mortality
• Adenocarcinoma/pathology
• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Cell Nucleus/metabolism
• Cytoplasm/metabolism
• Female
• Humans
• Immunohistochemistry
• Kaplan-Meier Estimate
• Lung Neoplasms/metabolism
• Lung Neoplasms/mortality
• Lung Neoplasms/pathology
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Staging
• Serpins/biosynthesis
• Tissue Array Analysis
• Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/metabolism
• Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/metabolism

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Grants

• R01 CA084176 NCI NIH HHS
• R01 CA084176-07 NCI NIH HHS

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Affiliation(s)

Amy Frey Department of Pathology, Harper University Hospital, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
Ayman O Soubani
Abdulgadir K Adam
Shijie Sheng
Harvey I Pass
Fulvio Lonardo

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Maspin overexpression correlates with increased expression of vascular endothelial growth factors A, C, and D in human ovarian carcinoma

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family, including VEGFA, VEGFC, and VEGFD, plays an essential role in the angiogenesis of both pathologic and nonpathologic conditions. Maspin belongs to the serpin superfamily and has been identified as a tumor suppressor because it inhibits motility, invasion, and angiogenesis. Few studies have compared maspin with VEGF in ovarian carcinoma. Therefore, we investigated the expression and correlation of maspin, VEGFA, VEGFC, and VEGFD with the tumorigenesis of the ovary and clinicopathologic variables. Using immunohistochemistry, we examined maspin, VEGFA, VEGFC, and VEGFD expression in 60 ovarian carcinoma tissues (35 serous papillary carcinomas, 18 endometrioid carcinomas, and 7 primary ovarian mucinous carcinomas). Staining of cells was scored as +2 if more than 50% of the cells were positive, as +1 if less than 50% of the cells were positive, and as negative if none of the cells stained positive. Overexpression of maspin, VEGFC, and VEGFD was significantly associated with high tumor grade (P<.001, P=.004, P<.001, respectively), clinical stage (P=.002, .01, and .001, respectively), the presence of ascites (P<.001, P=.03, and P=.001, respectively), and the presence of metastatic lymph nodes (P=.002, P<.001, and P<.001, respectively). Maspin was correlated with VEGFA (P=.01), VEGFC (P<.001), and VEGFD (P<.001). The VEGFA score was positively correlated with high tumor grade (P=.04), lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) (P<.001), International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (P=.009), maspin, VEGFC (P=.003), and VEGFD (P=.003), but it was not correlated with the presence of ascites and metastatic lymph nodes. Maspin, VEGFC, and VEGFD are expressed in ovarian tumors with a poor prognostic parameters, and seem to play a role in ovarian cancer angiogenesis, progression, and lymph node metastases. Our results indicate that in contrast to most other carcinomas, maspin expression is directly associated with the biological aggressiveness of ovarian carcinoma. These results may offer new insights regarding the role of maspin in ovarian cancer and might also affect the diagnosis and treatment strategies.

Maspin expression and localization impact on angiogenesis and prognosis in ovarian cancer

INTRODUCTION

The goal of this study is to evaluate the relation of maspin expression and its cellular localization to markers of angiogenesis in epithelial ovarian serous carcinoma (OSC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We identified 118 patients with high-grade advanced stage OSC who were treated at our institution. Clinical data were collected, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) with antibodies to VEGF, CD34, COX-2, and maspin was performed on paraffin-embedded tumor blocks. CD34 immunostaining was used to determine microvessel density. The correlation between the various molecular markers was assessed using the Chi-square test. Survival analysis was computed using the Kaplan-Meier model, and various prognostic variables were compared using Cox regression analysis.

RESULTS

Maspin expression was noted in 81.4% (96/118) of tumors. Expression was localized to the nuclear compartment in 21.2% of cases, whereas 60.2% of cases showed evidence of cytoplasmic +/- nuclear expression. Tumors that exhibited nuclear maspin expression had lower VEGF and COX-2 expression than tumors with negative or cytoplasmic expression. Tumors with high nuclear maspin expression had lower mean MVD than those with low or negative expression. The median survival based on localization of maspin was 1146 days for those with negative tumors, 1803 days for those with nuclear maspin, and 637 days for those with cytoplasmic maspin (P < 0.001). In a Cox regression analysis, maspin localization was an independent prognostic factor.

CONCLUSION

Maspin expression and localization seem to play a role in ovarian cancer angiogenesis and progression. High nuclear expression was associated with reduced markers of angiogenesis and prolonged survival.