Prognostic significance of micropapillary pattern in lung adenocarcinoma and expression of apoptosis‐related markers: caspase‐3, bcl‐2, and p53

Abstract

We evaluated the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic significance of lung adenocarcinoma with micropapillary pattern (MPP) and analyzed the expression of apoptosis-related markers: caspase-3, bcl-2, and p53. A series of 166 lung adenocarcinoma that had been surgically resected between 2004 and 2009 were reviewed. Histopathologic patterns, presence of tumor necrosis, mitosis, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, the status of pleura, and tumor differentiation were examined. Of the 166 patients; 71 were stage I, 35 stage II, 51 stage III, and nine stage IV. Histologically they were divided into two groups: MPP-positive (n = 55) and MPP-negative (n = 111). The following items were significantly more frequent in the MPP positive group: female gender (p = 0.03), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.031), and pleural invasion (p = 0.045). Age, smoking status, tumor stage, lymphatic invasion, perineural invasion, mitotic count, and survival rates had no statistically significant difference between groups (p > 0.05). In MPP positive tumors, visceral pleural invasion was identified significantly more frequent than in MPP negative tumors, at stage I. Tumors with MPP showed elevated expressions of caspase-3 (94.5%), p53 (60%), and bcl-2 (54.5%). In MPP positive group, the expression of these three markers had no statistically significant impact on survival. In whole population, bcl-2 expression was correlated with a better outcome. We conclude that MPP is associated with poor prognostic factors both in early and late stages in lung adenocarcinoma. Bcl-2 provides prognostic information independent from the MPP.

Bovine lactoferricin P13 triggers ROS-mediated caspase-dependent apoptosis in SMMC7721 cells

“…Caspase stimulation is a marker of apoptotic induction in response to death-inducing signals, which originate from cell surface receptors, mitochondria or the endoplasmic reticulum (25). Caspase-3 and -9 are activated in the early stages of apoptosis, and are therefore frequently used as markers of apoptotic cells (26). Caspase-9 is the primary initiator caspase in the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis (27).…”

AG4, a compound isolated from Radix Ardisiae Gigantifoliae, induces apoptosis in human nasopharyngeal cancer CNE cells through intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways

“…The pathways were also found to crosstalk through the truncation of members of the Bcl-2 protein family, which transduced apoptotic signals from the cell surface to the mitochondria [16][17][18][19][20][21]. Caspases, a family of cysteine-aspartic proteases, are key regulators of apoptosis; caspase-3 is a key effecter molecule in the caspase-dependent cell apoptosis pathway that cleaves a number of cellular proteins, leading to apoptotic changes.…”

Inhibitory effects of vitamin E on osteocyte apoptosis and DNA oxidative damage in bone marrow hemopoietic cells at early stage of steroid-induced femoral head necrosis

“…A known positively stained section was used as a positive control, and PBS instead of primary antibodies was used as a negative control. Particles stained a tan color in the cytoplasm indicated a positive result and the scoring method of Cakir et al (21) was used as follows: i) Cytoplasm staining degree; 1, weak staining, stained light yellow or only a very small number of yellow or brown cells; 3, strong staining, the majority of cells are stained yellow or tan; and, 2, medium staining, a staining degree between 1 and 2; and ii) Percentage of stained cells in the cells counted; 0, <1%; 1, 1–5%; 2, 6–50%; 3, 51–75%; and 4, >75%. Finally, the total score of each section was calculated as follows: Total score=staining degree score × stained cell percentage.…”