The expression of COX-2 and its relationship to the apoptosis and proliferation in gastric cancer

Objective:To investigate the expression level of COX-2 and their effects on cell proliferation activity and apoptosis degree in gastric cancinoma.Methods:The expression of COX-2,proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA) and apoptosis in 43 cases of gastric cancer were studied by immunohistochemistry and TUNEL methods,and the proliferation index (PI) and apoptotic index(AI) were defined respectively.Results:The positive expression rate of COX-2 was 60.47% in gastric carcinoma tissue.It was significantly higher than that in the control group.Overexpression of COX-2 in gastric carcinoma was related to its lymph node metastasis and clinical stage,but it did not correlate with the size of tumor,depth of the invasion and the differentiation degree( P 0.05).In the group with COX-2 positive expression AI was higher than that of the group with COX-2 negative expression,whereas AI was higher in the latter group than in the former ( P 0.01).Conclusion:The expression level of COX-2 may have a close correlation with cell proliferation and apoptosis and they may participate in oncogenesis and progression of gastric carcinoma.