Abstract:

Objective To investigate the expression of 14-3-3ζ protein in gastric cancer and its clinical significance. Methods Tissue microarray technique and immunohistochemical staining were used to investigate the expression of 14-3-3ζ protein in 100 cases of gastric cancer tissues and 76 cases of para-cancer gastric mucosa tissues. The correlation between expression of 14-3-3ζ protein and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with gastric cancer were analysed.ResultsFor 100 cases of gastric cancer tissues, 79 (79.00%) expressed 14-3-3ζ protein, while few cells expressed 14-3-3ζ protein in normal gastric mucosa. The positive expression of 14-3-3ζ protein in papillary adenocarcinoma (100%) and tubular adenocarcinoma (86.75%) was significantly higher than those in mucinous adenocarcinoma (42.86%) and signet-ring cell carcinoma (0) (P<0.05). By Lauren's classification, the positive expression of 14-3-3ζ protein in intestinal type gastric cancer was significantly higher than that in diffuse type gastric cancer (90.91% vs 73.13%)（P<0.05）. By infiltration degree of gastric cancer, the positive expression of 14-3-3ζ protein in muscular layer (78.57%) and serosa layer (81.93%) was significantly higher than that in mucosa layer (0) and submucosa layer (0) (P<0.05）. The positive expression of 14-3-3ζ protein in advanced gastric cancer was 81.44%, while 14-3-3ζ protein was not expressed in all the 3 cases of early gastric cancer （P<0.05）.  Conclusion The expression of 14-3-3ζ protein is significantly correlated with the histological classification and infiltration degree of gastric cancer tissues. 14-3-3ζ protein may be used as a marker for prognosis evaluation and as a potential target of biotherapy for gastric cancer.

Key words: gastric cancer, 14-3-3&zeta, protein, immunohistochemistory, tissue microarray