Expression of fibroblast activation protein in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma and its clinicopathological significance

• Published in: World journal of gastroenterology : WJG Vol. 18; no. 8; pp. 840 - 846
• Main Authors: Shi, Min, Yu, Dang-Hui, Chen, Ying, Zhao, Chen-Yan, Zhang, Jing, Liu, Qing-Hua, Ni, Can-Rong, Zhu, Ming-Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited 28.02.2012
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma - metabolism; Adenocarcinoma - pathology; Brief; Cell Line, Tumor; FAP; Female; Fibrosis - pathology; Gelatinases - metabolism; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Microarray Analysis; Middle Aged; Pancreatic Neoplasms - metabolism; Pancreatic Neoplasms - pathology; Serine Endopeptidases - metabolism; 临床意义; 临床病理; 人类; 激活蛋白; 碱性成纤维细胞; 肿瘤细胞; 胰腺癌; Cancer-associated fibroblasts; Prognosis; Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; Fibroblast activation protein
• ISSN: 1007-9327; 2219-2840
• DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i8.840

AIM： To examine fibroblast activation protein （FAP） expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma （PDAC） and to analyze its relationship with the clinicopathology of PDAC. METHODS： FAP expression was examined in 134 PDAC specimens by immunohistochemistry, and in four pancreatic cancer cell lines （SW1990, Miapaca-2, AsPC-1 and BxPC-3） by Western blotting assay. We also analyzed the association between FAP expression in PDAC cells and the clinicopathology of PDAC patients. RESULTS： The results showed that the FAP was expressed in both stromal fibroblast cells （98/134, 73.1%） and carcinoma cells （102/134, 76.1%）. All 4 pancreatic cancer cell lines expressed FAP protein at different levels. Protein bands corresponding to the proteolytically active 170-kDa seprase dimer and its88-kDa seprase subunit were identif ied. Higher FAP expression in carcinoma cells was associated with tumor size （P 〈 0.001）, fi brotic focus （P = 0.003）, perineural invasion （P = 0.009） and worse clinical outcome （P = 0.0085）. CONCLUSION： FAP is highly expressed in carcinoma cells and f ibroblasts in PDAC tissues, and its expression is associated with desmoplasia and worse prognosis.