Relationship between Fas gene expression and cell proliferation and apoptosis in gastric cancer tissue

AIM: To investigate the relationship between Fas gene expression level in human gastric carcinomas and the frequency of cell proliferation activity and the apoptosis of the tumor cells.METHODS: In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry methods were used to study the frequencies of expression of Fas gene and proliferating cell antigen (PCNA) in 53 gastric carcinomas.An in situ apoptotic cell detection method (TUNEL method) was also adopted to detect the apoptotic cells.The number of apoptotic cells and PCNA cells was compared with the Fas protein expression in each case.RESULTS: Of the 53 gastric carcinomas,28(52.8%) and 24(45.3%) expressed Fas mRNA and Fas protein respectively.There was no significant difference in the positivity rates obtained by these 2 methods.The apoptotic index and PCNA index of gastric carcinomas were correlated negatively (r=-0.982,P0.01).With the increase in the expression of Fas protein,the cell proliferating activity decreased and apoptosis increased in the tumor cells.There was significant difference in apoptosis indices between Fas protein  group and -/+ group (P0.01).The PCNA index in Fas protein group was significantly higher than that in  and  groups(P0.01).CONCLUSION: Fas gene can promote apoptosis and inhibit cell proliferation in the development and malignant progression of gastric carcinomas.