Relationship between PTEN/PI3K pathway and biological behavior of endometrial carcinoma

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the relationship between PTEN/PI3K pathway and the occurrence, development of endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: The expression of PTEN, p-PKB and p-Bad in 68 endometrial carcinoma or precancerous tissues and 11 normal endometrium were detected by the immunohistochemistry and Western blot tests. RESULTS: 1)The highest positive rate of PTEN expression was found in normal proliferative phase endometrium.The positive rate decreased slightly in atypical hyperplasia tissues, and being obviously in endometrial carcinoma(49.1%) the difference was high significant,P0.01. 2)The expressions of p-PKB and p-Bad were opposite to that of PTEN, their positive rates obviously increasd in atypical hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma tissues.The differences were also significant,P0.01,P0.05 respectively. In endometrial carcinoma, the positive scores of p-PKB and p-Bad in PTEN negative group were higher than those of PTEN positive one significantly,P0.05,P0.01 respectively. 3)Correlation analysis revealed that expression of PTEN was negatively related to that of both p-PKB,r=-0.67,P0.05 and p-Bad,r=-0.65,P0.05. 4)There were no differences between the positive expressions of PTEN and that of p-Pad in different clinical phase,histological grade and muscle invasion.The difference of p-PKB expression was sigtnificant in different clinical phases of endometrial carcinoma,P0.05.CONCLUSIONS:PTEN/PI3K pathway is closely related with the occurrence of endometrial carcinoma. With the failure of PTEN expression, the expressions of p-PKB and p-Bad are more intensive, so PTEN may be the marker for early diagnosis and the target for gene therapy in endometrial carcinoma.