Artikel
Is there an association between accumulation of structurally modified versican and decorin and the progression of laryngeal cancer?
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Veröffentlicht: | 6. Juli 2010 |
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Gliederung
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Introduction: The proteoglycans versican and decorin are constituents of the extracellular matrix. Versican is present in developing tissues, whereas decorin is constantly present in all tissues. In laryngeal carcinoma an extensive deterioration of laryngeal tissues is observed mainly due to the elevated metalloproteinases activity. However, most cancers contain elevated amounts of versican and decorin. The present work therefore focused in the expression and structural characterisation of these macromolecules in laryngeal cancer.
Material and methods: Specimens from 18 patients who underwent laryngectomy (cancerous and macroscopically normal tissue) were obtained and applied to immunohistochemical, HPLC, western blotting and RT-PCR analyses.
Results: The expression of both versican and decorin increased in cancer, in a stage-related order. However, versican expression increased 30-times more than that of decorin. The results were also verified from western blotting analysis, where, a degradation of versican was also observed. Both proteoglycans immunolocalised peritumorally, whereas versican was observed in addition within the tumor mass. Glycosaminoglycan analysis indicated a stage related increase of dermatan sulphate, together with a similar increase of 4-sulphated disaccharides.
Conclusions: The obtained data demonstrated that tumor progression was closely related to the alteration of the expression of the proteoglycans versican and decorin. The results regarding the detailed chemical structure of dermatan sulphate were opposite to those observed in other cancers of epithelial origin and may be associated with the reduced aggressive potential of squamous cell carcinoma. It should be noticed that the absolute amounts of 4-sulfated disaccharides are increased in stage II cancer, indicating that the alterations in sulfation pattern are closely associated with the onset of tumor.