抄録
The tumor suppressor gene, maspin inhibits invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis of cancers. In this study, we examined maspin expression patterns in early lesions of gastric carcinoma and their relevance to disease progression by examining gastric adenoma and early gastric carcinoma (e.g., intramucosal carcinoma and sub-mucosal carcinoma) . Immunohistochemical staining detected maspin expression in adenoma (24 patients), intra-mucosal carcinoma (56 patients), and sub-mucosal carcinoma (57 patients) . While maspin expression was rarely observed in normal mucosa remote from the carcinoma, the percentage of maspin-positive cells in normal mucosa and in intestinal metaplasia adjacent to carcinoma was 93.9%. In the adenoma samples, 96.0% expressed maspin. Although the percentage of tumor cells expressing maspin was as high as 82.1% in intra-mucosal carcinoma and 75.4% in sub-mucosal carcinoma, it was still lower than in intestinal metaplasia and adenoma. Vascular invasion occurred at a significantly lower frequency when maspin expression was detected in the area of sub-mucosal invasion. These results suggested that maspin is involved in gastric carcinoma progression even at an early stage, and that maspin expression in the infiltration area is likely to influence the prognosis.
