Expression of IAP family proteins in colon cancers from patients with different age groups

Cancer Immunol Immunother (2004) 53: 770776

DOI 10.1007/s00262-004-0534-8ORIGINAL ARTICLET. Endo S. Abe H. B. K. Seidlar S. NagaokaT. Takemura M. Utsuyama M. KitagawaK. HirokawaExpression of IAP family proteins in colon cancers from patients

with different age groupsReceived: 30 January 2004 / Accepted: 8 March 2004 / Published online: 11 May 2004

Springer-Verlag 2004Abstract Members of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein

(IAP) family including survivin, are expressed in many

tumors. However, age-related changes in their expression in cancer have not been claried. Thus, we investigated the expression of mRNA-coding for IAP family

proteins in colon cancer samples from young (<70 years

of age) and elderly (>70 years) patients by real-time

quantitative RT-PCR. Samples were collected from

cases with well-dierentiated adenocarcinoma or moderately dierentiated adenocarcinoma and their adjacent

normal epithelial tissue. Well-dierentiated adenocarcinoma tended to express higher levels of survivin than

normal mucosa, and expression in moderately dierentiated adenocarcinoma was signicantly greater than in

normal mucosa in samples from both groups of patients

(p<0.05, respectively). When samples were compared

between the dierent age groups, the normal mucosa

exhibited similar levels of survivin expression. However,

samples from older patients showed a signicantly

higher level of expression than those from younger patients in well and moderately dierentiated adenocarcinomas (p<0.05, respectively). In contrast, the levels of

expression of cIAP1, cIAP2, and NAIP in the cancerous

tissues were lower than those found in normal mucosa

regardless of age. As for age-related changes, the expression of cIAP2 in normal mucosa and moderately

dierentiated adenocarcinoma was stronger in the

elderly group than the young group (p<0.05, respectively), and NAIP expression in well-dierentiated adenocarcinoma was higher in the young group than the

elderly group (p<0.05). XIAP expression was similar in

normal and cancerous tissues in both the young and

elderly groups. These results suggest that the expression

of IAP family proteins, especially survivin, is associated

with the age-related biological characteristics of colon

cancer.Keywords Colon cancer IAP Immunohistochemistry Real-time PCR SurvivinIntroductionT. Endo S. Abe H. B. K. SeidlarM. Utsuyama M. Kitagawa K. Hirokawa (&)

Department of Pathology and Immunology, Graduate School,

Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45, Yushima,

Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8519, JapanE-mail: [email protected].: [phone]Fax: [phone]S. NagaokaDepartment of Surgery, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center,

Tokyo, JapanT. TakemuraDepartment of Pathology, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center,

Tokyo, JapanThe...