Accumulation of cytoplasmic beta-catenin correlates with reduced expression of E-cadherin, but not with phosphorylated Akt in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: immunohistochemical study

Zhang, Guo, Zhou, Xiaobo, Xue, Liyan, Quan, Lanping, Wang, Yihua, Zhou, Cuiqi, Lu, Ning, Wang, Quanhong, Zhu, Hongxia and Xu, Ningzhi (2005) Accumulation of cytoplasmic beta-catenin correlates with reduced expression of E-cadherin, but not with phosphorylated Akt in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: immunohistochemical study. Pathology International, 55 (6), 310-317. (doi:10.1111/j.1440-1827.2005.01840.x). (PMID:15943787)

Abstract

Accumulation of β-catenin in cytoplasm occurs frequently during the pathogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The mechanism leading to this alteration, however, is largely unknown. In the present study, immunohistochemistry was performed for β-catenin, E-cadherin and Ser473 phosphorylated Akt (P-Akt) in 44 tissue samples of ESCC and corresponding normal esophageal epithelium. Exon 3 of the β-catenin gene was analyzed by using single-strand conformation polymorphism and direct sequencing. In addition to the reduced expression of E-cadherin and membranous β-catenin observed in 65.9% and 68% of ESCC tested, respectively, cytoplasmic accumulation of β-catenin was also detected in 68% (30/44) cases. However, only two cases were found to have the same β-catenin gene mutation. The data showed that cytoplasmic accumulation of β-catenin was significantly associated with reduced expression of E-cadherin (P < 0.05) and that of membranous β-catenin (P < 0.05). Furthermore, cytoplasmic β-catenin was correlated significantly with lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). In contrast, although strong staining of P-Akt occurred in 14 of 44 cases (32%), there was no significant correlation between the positive staining of P-Akt and cytoplasmic β-catenin. Taken together these results suggest that the lost membranous β-catenin might translocate to cytoplasm depending on reduced expression of E-cadherin, while Akt seems unlikely to play a role in this process.

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Contributors

Author: Yihua Wang

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