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DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1592973
Crosstalk between Estrogen receptor β and Wnt- Signaling Pathway in Endometrial Cancer
Background: Many mechanisms have been implicated to the tumorgenesis and growth of endometrial cancer (EC) such as aberrations of Wnt-Signaling pathway and estrogen receptors.
Many attempts have been made to study different molecules in Wnt- signalling pathway as targets for diagnosis and treatment of EC such as Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) and beta-Catenin proteins. Another widely discussed mechanism is the expression of various estrogen receptors. The expression of estrogen receptor alpha has been well documented in endometrial cancer. Recently estrogen receptor beta and its subtypes have been emerged into focus. The aim of our study is to detect a possible crosstalk between wnt – signalling and certain estroge receptor subtypes in EC.
Materials and methods: 130 subjects were enrolled in this study including 59 healthy women and 71 EC patients.
Serum level of DKK1 was tested in 59 patients using Human Dkk1 Quantikine ELISA Kit. RT-PCR was employed to detect gene expression of beta-catenin and DKK1 in tumor tissues from 17 patients.
Representative formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumour blocks of 59 patients were obtained from the department of pathology. Immunohistochemical staining for DKK1, beta-catenin, ER-alpha and ER-beta subtypes (1, 2, 5) were performed on parallel representative tumour sections of each case.
Results and conclusion: Serum levels of DKK1 were significantly higher in EC patients compared to healthy controls. Increased concentrations of serum DKK1 were associated with higher depth of myometrial invasion, suggesting that Dkk1 may involve in tumorgenesis and growth of EC.
Results of RT-PCR and the immunohistochemistry tests will be shown later.