T. Fujii et al., Urokinase-type plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1as a prognostic factor in human colorectal carcinomas, HEP-GASTRO, 46(28), 1999, pp. 2299-2308
BACKGROUND/AIMS: The urokinase pathway of plasminogen activation is known t
o be involved in proteolytic degradation of the extracellular matrix during
carcinoma invasion.
METHODOLOGY: We immunohistochemically examined 97 colorectal carcinomas for
the expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and plasminog
en activator inhibitor-1. (PAI-1) to investigate whether uPA and PAI-1 expr
essions could serve as prognostic parameters; the gene expression of uPA an
d PAI-1 in human colon cancer tissues was also analyzed using reverse trans
cription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
RESULTS: The relative expression levels of uPA and PAI-1 mRNAs were well co
rrelated with immunoreactivities of uPA and PAI-1, respectively (p<0.05). I
n immunohistochemical staining, diffuse specific staining was observed in t
he cytoplasm of carcinoma cells. uPA expression was detected in 57 carcinom
a specimens (58.8%) and PAI-1 expression was detected in 36 specimens (37.1
%). With regard to 5-year overall survival rate, patients whose tumors had
positive uPA and negative PAI-1 immunoreactivities had a significantly poor
er prognosis (p<0.05). In multivariate analysis, the combined variable of u
PA and PAI-1 was shown to be an independent prognostic indicator.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that immunohistochemical combined analysis
of uPA and PAI-1 may be a useful prognostic factor in colorectal carcinoma
patients.