Expression of Ezrin and MMP-14 in gastric carcinoma and their correlations

Purpose To investigate the expression of the protein of Ezrin and MMP-14 in normal gastric tissue,dysplasia and carcinoma and to find out their relationship with the biologic behavior of gastric carcinoma.Methods Ezrin and MMP-14 proteins were detected by immunohistochemical staining in 10 cases of normal gastric tissue,40 cases of gastric dysplasia and 198 cases of gastric carcinoma tissues.Results All of the expression levels of Ezrin and MMP-14 proteins were increased in the order of normal-dysplsia-carcinoma in gastric tissues.The expression rate of Ezrin was 10%,27.5% and 76.3%,while the rate of MMP-14 was 10%,32.5% and81.3% in the normal,dysplasia and carcinoma groups,respectively.The expression rates of each protein were significantly different among the three groups(P 0.05).The expression of them in the group of poorly-differentiated carcinoma with serosal invasion and lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than those of well-differentiated without serosal invasion or lymph node metastasis(P 0.05).And the expression of Ezrin in the esophagogastric junction was higher than that in the gastric tumor but without significance(P= 0.05).There was a positive correlation between the expression of Ezrin and MMP-14 protein in gastric carcinoma(P 0.05).Conclusions Ezrin and MMP-14 do over-express in the gastric carcinoma tissues,both of which are synergistically involved in the invasiveness and metastasis in gastric carcinoma.