1Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, DongGuk University, Kyungju, Korea. 2Department of Urology, College of Medicine, DongGuk University, Kyungju, Korea.
ABSTRACT
Transfonning growth factor-beta (TGP-beta) is a multipotent growth factor affecting development, homeostasis, and tissue repair. We evaluate the significance of the expression of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 and correlation with prognostic factors in prostate cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to investigate the expression of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2, we analyzed Immunohistochemical staining from paraffin blocks of 22 cases of the prostate carcinoma and adjacent normal prostate.
RESULTS: The expressions of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 were noted in the cytoplasm of tumor cells, normal epithelial cells and stroma. The staining intensity and areas were examined and scored from 0 to 5. The TGF-beta1 staining scores of the tumor cells were higher than that of the adjacent normal epithelial cells (p=0.001). The TGF-beta2 staining scores of the tumor cells were also higher than that of the adjacent normal epithelial cells (p=0.003).
However, there were no correlation between tumor surrounding stroma and normal stroma in TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 staining scores. The serum PSA level, the clinical stage, the Gleason score and the lymph node metastasis of the tumor did not correlated with the staining score of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2.
CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the prostatic cancer was associated with alteration of TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 expression by prostatic epithelial cells which play a role in prostatic carcinogenesis.