Background & objective: Ezrin protein is a membrane cytoskeletal crosslinker between the cell membrane and cytoskeleton. Increasing evidence has shown that Ezrin may be associated with tumor invasion and progression. This study was to explore the correlation of Ezrin to metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma.
Methods: The expression of Ezrin mRNA in fresh specimens of 32 pancreatic carcinoma, 19 metastatic lesions and 10 non-cancerous pancreatic tissues were assessed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain (RT-PCR).
Results: The mRNA expression of Ezrin was significantly higher in pancreatic carcinoma tissues (1.9+/-1.1) than in non-cancerous tissues (0.9+/-0.5)(P<0.05), significantly higher in metastatic lesions (2.6+/-0.8) than in the primary tumor focus (1.9+/-1.1) (P<0.05), and significantly higher in pancreatic carcinoma lesions with metastasis (2.1+/-1.2) than in those without (1.4+/-0.7) ( P<0.05). Ezrin mRNA was differently expressed in tumors with different clinical pathologic characters. It was highly expressed in poorly differentiated or distantly metastatic carcinomas.
Conclusions: Ezrin gene is closely related to invasion and metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma, which might be used as a marker in predicting the metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma.