Objective: To investigate the expressions of phosphorylated protein kinase B (p-AKT), phosphorylated glycogen synthase kinase 3β (p-GSK3β) and β-catenin proteins and to evaluate their relationship with the clinical pathological characteristics in epithelial tumors of the ovary.
Methods: The expression of p-AKT, p-GSK3β, and β-catenin was detected with immunohistochemical staining (EnVision method) in 10 cases of benign epithelial neoplasia, 10 cases of borderline epithelial neoplasia and 70 cases of ovarian carcinoma. The relationship of the expression of p-AKT, p-GSK3β and β-catenin with the clinical pathological features was analyzed.
Results: The positive expression rates of p-AKT, p-GSK3β and β-catenin in epithelial ovarian carcinoma were 67.1% (47/70), 60.0% (42/70) and 71.4% (50/70), respectively. Compared to the results of benign and borderline epithelial neoplasia, the expression of the three proteins in carcinoma of the ovary was significantly different (all P < 0.05).Positive correlation was found between p-AKT and p-GSK3β, p-GSK3β and β-catenin, and p-AKT and β-catenin in epithelial ovarian carcinoma (r = 0.546, 0.581, 0.500, respectively; all P < 0.05). Compared to the results of benign and borderline epithelial neoplasia, the expression of p-AKT protein in epithelial ovarian carcinoma was significantly different (all P < 0.05). The expression of p-AKT was correlated with the differentiation of epithelial ovarian carcinoma (P < 0.05), but no relationship was found between its expression and histological classification and FIGO staging (P > 0.05). The expression of p-GSK3β and β-catenin in epithelial ovarian carcinoma were both higher than that in benign and borderline epithelial neoplasia (P < 0.05), and correlated with tumor differentiation and FIGO staging (P < 0.05), but no relationship were found between their expression with histological classification (P > 0.05).
Conclusions: Positive correlations are found between p-AKT, p-GSK3β and β-catenin in epithelial ovarian carcinoma. The activation of β-catenin is possibly correlated with inactivation of p-GSK3β that binds to p-AKT.