ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Expression of p-STAT3 in human colorectal adenocarcinoma and adenoma; correlation with clinicopathological factors

T Kusaba^1,2, T Nakayama¹, K Yamazumi², Y Yakata¹, A Yoshizaki¹, T Nagayasu² and I Sekine¹

¹ Department of Molecular Pathology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8523, Japan
² Department of Translational Medical Sciences, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr T Nakayama
Department of Molecular Pathology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8523, Japan; toshi-n{at}net.nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Background: The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a key signalling molecule implicated in the regulation of growth and malignant transformation. Constitutive activation of STAT3 is seen in several tumour derived cell lines, and in a wide variety of human malignancies.

Aims: To examine the relation between p-STAT3 (activated form of STAT3) expression and clinicopathological factors in human colorectal adenocarcinoma and adenoma.

Methods: Immunohistochemical analyses were carried out on tissues from 44 colorectal adenomas and 95 colorectal adenocarcinomas, comprising 18 intramucosal carcinomas and 77 invasive carcinomas.

Results: Seventy seven of these 139 samples (55.4%) showed immunoreactivity for p-STAT3. Positive staining for p-STAT3 was seen in 69 of the 95 carcinomas. Only eight of the 44 adenomas showed immunopositivity for p-STAT3, resulting in a significant difference between total adenocarcinomas and adenomas (p < 0.001). Among the 95 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma, p-STAT3 immunoreactivity was significantly correlated with the depth of tumour invasion (p < 0.05), venous invasion (p < 0.05), lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05), and increasing stages of the Dukes’ classification (p < 0.01). Expression of p-STAT3 was detected by Western blot analysis in two different cultured human colorectal carcinoma cell lines and six colon carcinoma tissue samples obtained at surgery.

Conclusion: This is the first study to report a significant correlation of p-STAT3 expression with the depth of tumour invasion. These findings suggest that p-STAT3 expression is an important factor related to carcinogenesis and/or tumour invasion of colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Abbreviations: IFN, interferon ; IL-6, interleukin 6; p-STAT, phosphorylated (activated) signal transducer and activator of transcription; STAT, signal transducer and activator of transcription

Keywords: cell lines; colorectal cancer; invasion; phosphorylated (activated) signal transducer and activator of transcription

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Abou-Ghazal, M., Yang, D. S., Qiao, W., Reina-Ortiz, C., Wei, J., Kong, L.-Y., Fuller, G. N., Hiraoka, N., Priebe, W., Sawaya, R., Heimberger, A. B. (2008). The Incidence, Correlation with Tumor-Infiltrating Inflammation, and Prognosis of Phosphorylated STAT3 Expression in Human Gliomas. Clin. Cancer Res. 14: 8228-8235 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Abdulghani, J., Gu, L., Dagvadorj, A., Lutz, J., Leiby, B., Bonuccelli, G., Lisanti, M. P., Zellweger, T., Alanen, K., Mirtti, T., Visakorpi, T., Bubendorf, L., Nevalainen, M. T. (2008). Stat3 Promotes Metastatic Progression of Prostate Cancer. Am. J. Pathol. 172: 1717-1728 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Huang, S. (2007). Regulation of Metastases by Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 Signaling Pathway: Clinical Implications. Clin. Cancer Res. 13: 1362-1366 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lassmann, S., Schuster, I., Walch, A., Gobel, H., Jutting, U., Makowiec, F., Hopt, U., Werner, M. (2007). STAT3 mRNA and protein expression in colorectal cancer: effects on STAT3-inducible targets linked to cell survival and proliferation. J. Clin. Pathol. 60: 173-179 [Abstract] [Full Text]