Correlation between Three Pregnancy Characteristics (Age, Parity, βhCG Level) and pAkt Immunoexpression on Complete Hydatidiform Mole

Abstract

The incidence of hydatidiform mole as pregnancy failure is still high in Asia, leading to high mortality and morbidity. Several risk factors play roles in the occurrence of hydatidiform mole, including age and parity. Until now, β-human chronic gonadotropin (βhCG) is used to predict the risk and development of hydatidiform mole. Akt, also known as protein kinase B (PKB), is a downstream effector of the intracellular phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway, which is a central regulatory pathway for cell proliferation, growth, differentiation, and survival. This study aimed to analyze the correlation between three pregnancy characteristics i.e. age, parity, levels of βhCG and pAkt immunoexpression. Cross sectional study was conducted on 30 samples of complete hydatidiform mole (CHM). The βhCG content was measured by ELISA method. The immunoexpression of pAkt was measured by immunohistochemical staining using the phospho-Akt antibody (Ser473) (736E11) Rabbit mAb # 3787 (CST). Cells with positive pAkt immunoexpression showed brown color. The stronger the intensity of the visible brown color, the higher the level of expression. pAkt immunoexpression level was then expressed as histoscore value, which was calculated using staining intensity and positively-stained-cell distribution number. When the immunoexpression level was high, its histoscore value would be high too. Results of this study showed that the histoscore of pAkt samples ranged from 0 -16 with a median value 4, and the most samples (56.7%) had histoscore ≤ 4.