Year: 2015
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Penile squamous cell carcinoma (PeCa) is a rare malignancy and little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms involved in carcinogenesis of PeCa. The Wnt signaling pathway, with the transcription activator ß-catenin as a major transducer, is a key cellular pathway during development and in disease, particularly cancer. We have used PeCa tissue arrays and multi-fluorophore labelled, quantitative, immunohistochemistry to interrogate the expression of WNT4, a Wnt ligand, and three targets of Wnt-ß-catenin transcription activation, namely, MMP7, cyclinD1 (CD1) and c-MYC in 141 penile tissue cores from 101 unique samples. The expression of all Wnt signaling proteins tested was increased by 1.6 to 3 fold in PeCa samples compared to control tissue (normal or cancer adjacent) samples (p<0.01). Expression of all proteins, except CD1, showed a significant decrease in grade II compared to grade I tumors. High magnification, deconvolved confocal images were used to measure differences in co-localization between the four proteins. Significant (p<0.04-0.0001) differences were observed for various permutations of the combinations of proteins and state of the tissue (control, tumor grades I and II). Wnt signaling may play an important role in PeCa and proteins of the Wnt signaling network could be useful targets for diagnosis and prognostic stratification of disease.
Source: PLoS ONE
Institutions: University College Hospital, Queen Mary University of London, Barts Cancer Institute, University College London, Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Albel Salazar, The Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, University of Dundee, University Hospital of North Norway
Language: English
Topic: Genital Health and Disease
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,382
Funder: University of Bristol
OpenAlex ID: W2107784598