Objective: To investigate the expression of interleukin-9 (IL-9) in colon cancer tissues and its clinical significance.
Methods: Immunohistochenmistry and qRT-PCR were used to detect the expressions of IL-9 protein and mRNA in 92 colon cancer tissues and paired adjacent normal tissues. The correlation of IL-9 expressions with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of the patients was analyzed.
Results: IL-9 protein and mRNA expressions were significantly higher in adjacent normal tissues than in the colon cancer tissues (P < 0.001). In colon cancer patients, IL-9 expression was significantly correlated with TNM stage (P=0.013), Ducks stage (P=0.025) and lymph node metastasis (P=0.004) but not with gender, age, tumor size, differentiation or hepatic metastasis (P > 0.05). The survival time of colon cancer patients with positive IL-9 expression was significantly longer than that of patients negative for IL-9 expression (P=0.015).
Conclusions: IL-9 expression is lowered in colon cancer tissues compoved with in the adjacent normal tissues. IL-9 expression is negatively correlated with TNM staging, Ducks staging and lymph node metastasis but positively with good prognosis, suggesting its important role in the tumor microenvironment of colon cancer.
目的: 探讨IL-9在结肠癌组织中的表达水平及其临床意义。
方法: 采用免疫组化法和实时荧光定量PCR（qRT-PCR）法分别检测92例结肠癌组织及相应癌旁正常组织中IL-9的表达情况；统计分析IL-9在结肠癌与癌旁正常组织中的表达差异；分析IL-9蛋白表达与结肠癌患者的临床病理特征及生存预后之间的关系。
结果: 在癌旁正常组织中IL-9蛋白及mRNA的表达水平均显著高于结肠癌组织（P < 0.001）。IL-9蛋白表达水平与结肠癌患者的TNM分期、Ducks分期及淋巴结转移相关（P=0.013, 0.025, 0.004），而与性别、年龄、肿瘤大小、分化程度及肝转移等临床病理特征无明显相关性（P > 0.05）。IL-9表达阳性结肠癌患者的生存时间明显长于阴性表达的患者（P=0.015）。
结论: IL-9在结肠癌组织中较在癌旁正常组织中低表达；IL-9在结肠癌组织中的表达与TNM分期、Ducks分期及淋巴结转移呈负相关，与良好预后呈正相关，提示在结肠癌肿瘤微环境中IL-9发挥了重要的作用。
Keywords: colon cancer; immunohistochemistry; interleukin-9; prog.