Clinicopathological significance of platelet-derived growth factor B, platelet-derived growth factor recpertor-β, and E-cadherin expression in gastric carcinoma

Aim of the study: Platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGF-B), a vital growth factor which can induce angiogenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), is important in the metastasis of many tumors. However, the roles of PDGF-B in gastric carcinoma are largely unknown. We investigated the correlation between PDGF-B, PDGFR-β and E-cadherin expression with the clinical features of gastric carcinoma patients to evaluate the relationship between PDGF-B signaling, E-cadherin and me­tastasis of gastric carcinoma, the correlation between PDGF-B and E-cadherin expression to assess the roles of PDGF-B signaling in metastasis of gastric carcinoma..

Material and methods: We detected ex­pressions of PDGF-B, PDGFR-β and

E-cadherin in gastric carcinoma tissues and normal gastric mucosa tissues of 64 pa­tients with gastric carcinoma who had undergone surgical resection, and investigated their relationships with clinical features and the relationships between PDGF-B and E-cadherin expression in gas­tric carcinoma.

Results: In surgical specimens, tumor cells expressed PDGF-B, and PDGFR-β was expressed by tumor stromal cells. E-cadherin was expressed by both tumor cells and normal gastric mucosa cells. Expressions of PDGF-B and PDGFR-β were increased in gastric carcinoma tissues (p < 0.05) and were positively correlated with the depth of cancer invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (p < 0.05). The expression of E-cadherin was reduced in gastric carcinoma tissues (p < 0.05) and was negatively correlated with the depth of cancer invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (p < 0.05). The correlation between PDGF-B and E-cadherin expression was negative (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Our data indicate that either the overexpression of PDGF-B and PDGFR-β or the underexpression of

E-cadherin is correlated with cancer progression and lymphogenous metastasis of gastric carcinoma. The PDGF-B signal pathway might induce EMT by down-regulating expression of E-cadherin to promote metastasis of gastric carcinoma.