EXPRESSION OF THE ETS-1 PROTOONCOGENE IN HUMAN PANCREATIC-CARCINOMA

The proto-oncogene, ets-1, is a transcription factor that controls the expression of a number of genes involved in extracellular matrix remo deling, It might play a role in cell migration and tumor invasion, To elucidate the involvement of Ets-1 in human pancreatic carcinoma, we p erformed immunohistochemical analysis on tissue from 10 normal pancrea ses and 103 cases of pancreatic carcinoma, We compared the degree of E ts-1 expression, In addition, among the pancreatic carcinomas, we comp ared Ets-1 expression in relation to the differentiation, lymph node m etastasis and the depth of invasion of the carcinoma, Ets-1 was expres sed faintly in normal pancreatic tissue. Among the 103 cases of pancre atic carcinoma, 83 (80.5%) showed positive staining for the Ets-1 prot ein, Histologically, papillary carcinoma, well-differentiated adenocar cinoma, and moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma expressed high po sitivity for Ets-1. In contrast, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma expressed relatively weak positivity for Ets-1, Ets-1 expression had n o relation to the presence of lymph node metastasis, tumor size, progn osis, or tumor-node-metastasis stage in pancreatic carcinomas. In situ hybridization also confirmed the presence of ets-1 mRNA in pancreatic carcinomas, We detected expression of ets-1 mRNA in three human pancr eatic carcinoma cell Lines by the reverse transcription-polymerase cha in reaction method, These findings suggest that Ets-1 expression is re lated to the carcinogenesis of human pancreatic carcinoma, but its rel ationship to tumor progression is unclear.