Objective: To study the clinical significance of pyruvate carboxylase (PC) expression in gastric adenocarcinoma (GC).
Methods: Immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting were performed to detect the expression of PC in GC and matched adjacent tumor-free tissues, and statistical analyses were used to determine the relationships of PC expression to patients' parameters such as age, gender, TNM stage, and pathological grade. Using Western blotting, we detected the expression of PC in various gastric cancer cell line and immortalized gastric mucosal epithelium cell line (GES).
Results: Both immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting showed that the expression of PC significantly increased in GC as compared with matched adjacent tumor-free tissues (P<0.01), and PC expression in GC was statistically correlated with various clinical parameters including TNM stage and pathological grade (P<0.05), but not with patient gender and age (P>0.05). What's more, Western blotting revealed that the expressions of PC were markedly higher in all gastric cancer cell lines detected than in GES (P<0.01).
Conclusion: Increased PC expression is correlated with the malignant progression of GC, which might be a potential target for GC biotherapy.