| Research Abstract |
Desmosomes are intercellular junctions which play an important role in epithelial cell adhesion. We reported a decrease in number of desmosomes in esophageal cancer cells as shown by electron microscopic study. Desmoglein I (DGI) is a major component of the desmosomal membrane core that plays an important role in epitherial cell adhesion. Normal squamous epitherial cells strongly expressed DGI at their cell-cell boundaries. According to the intensity and pattern of DGI expression, the cancerous tissues were divided into three groups : DGI (++), DGI (+), and DGI (-). DGI (+) or DGI (-) tumors had lymph node metastases more frequently than DGI (++). A good inverse correlation between DGI expression and tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion and vessel invasion was observed. DGI expression in metastatic lymph nodes was the same or of less intensity, than in the primary tumor. Therefore, reduction or loss of DGI expression may promote lymph node metastases. Thorombomodul
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in (TM) is thorombin receptor that identified originally on the endothelium and acts a natural anticoagulant. TM was immunohistochemically expressed in the squamous epithelium mainly at the intercellular bridges. The carcinoma tissues expressed TM mainly at the cell-cell boundaries and in the cytoplasm. When TM expression was compared between the primary and metastatic lesions, TM expression was far fewer in the metastatic lesions than in the primary tumors. The reduction of TM expression seems to play an important role in the metastatic process.
In the patinets with gastric carcinoma, a down-regulation of DGI expression and lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion and the number of lymph node metastasis. A close relationship between DGI expression and lymph node metastasis was found, compared with C-erbB2, p53, FH6 and PCNA.Furthermore, survival rate of patients with HLA-DR positive cells or with many S-100 protein positive dendritic cells was significantly better than that of the other patients.
These results may provide us with some important infomations for malignant behavior of the upper gastrointestinal tract. Less
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