Abstract:

Objective To investigate the expression of CD133 mRNA in tissues of gastric cancer, and explore its relationship with clinicopathological features. Methods The tissues of gastric cancer and normal tissues adjacent to gastric cancer were obtained from 31 patients. The expression of CD133 mRNA was detected by semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and its relationship with clinicopathological features such as sex, age, tumor diameter, infiltration depth, TNM staging, tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis and Ki-67 proliferation index was analysed. Results The relative gray scale values of CD133 mRNA in tissues of gastric cancer and normal tissues adjacent to gastric cancer were 0.378 3±0.141 1 and 0.038 1±0.091 9, respectively (P=0.000). The relative gray scale values of CD133 mRNA in tissues of gastric cancer with tumor diameter ＞5 cm were significantly higher than those with tumor diameter ≤5 cm [(0.439 3±0.148 4) vs (0.334 3±0.121 2)](P=0.041), and those in tissues with lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis [(0.426 6±0.132 0) vs (0.239 5±0.030 9)]（P=0.004). The rate of lymph node metastasis and the number of metastatic lymph nodes were positively related to relative gray scale values of CD133 mRNA（r=0.466, P=0.008; r=0.464, P=0.009）. The relative gray scale values of CD133 mRNA in those with low expression of Ki-67 were significantly higher than those with high expression of Ki-67 [(0.436 4±0.139 8) vs (0.316 4±0.117 4)]（P=0.02), and expression of Ki-67 were negatively related to relative gray scale values of CD133 mRNA (r=－0.461, P=0.009). Conclusion The expression of CD133 mRNA in tissues of gastric cancer was associated with the rate of lymph node metastasis, number of metastatic lymph nodes and expression of Ki-67, which reflect the status of lymph node metastasis and proliferation of gastric cancer.

Key words: stomach, CD133 mRNA, lymphatic metastasis, neoplasma/cancer