Expression of angiopoietins in colorectal carcinoma and its clinicopathological significance

Objective To observe the expression of angiopoietin-1,-2 and its receptor Tie-2 in colorectal carcinoma,and to investigate the possible relationship between the expression of angiopoietins and the angiogenesis in colorectal carcinoma.Methods The expression and distribution of angiopoietin-1,-2 and their receptor Tie-2 in 50 colorectal carcinoma and 10 normal tissues were detected by immunohistochemical PV-9000 two steps method,and the microvessel density was determined by CD105 staining.Results Angiopoietin-1 expression was higher in normal colorectal tissues than that in colorectal carcinoma(P0.05),but angiopoietin-2 and its receptor Tie-2 expression was higher in colorectal carcinoma than that in normal tissues(P0.05).The expression of angiopoietin-1,-2 were different in various levels of differentiated colorectal carcinoma(P0.01).Angiopoietin-1 expression was lower with lymph node metastasis than without lymph node metastasis(P0.05),angiopoietin-2 expression was in reverse.Angiopoietin-2 expression was higher with lymph node metastasis than without lymph node metastasis(P0.05).Expression of angiopoietin-2 was significantly higher in Dukes stage C+D than that in Dukes stage A+B(P0.01).Tie-2 expression was higher with lymph node metastasis than without lymph node metastasis(P0.05).Expressions of angiopoietin-2 and Tie-2 were positively correlated with MVD respectively(r=0.345,P0.05;r=0.299,P0.05).Conclusion Angiopoietins have relationships with the differentiation stage,Dukes stages and lymph node metastasis of colorectal carcinoma,and play an important role in the angiogenesis of colorectal carcinoma.