Expression of B7-H4 on Ovarian Serous Carcinoma Tissues and the Clinical Significance

Objective To study the expression of B7-H4 in primary epithelial ovarian serous carcinoma and the relationship between B7-H4 expression and the clinical significance.Methods B7-H4 mRNA was evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology,and expression of B7-H4 protein was analyzed by immunohistochemical method in the tissues from 40 cases of ovarian serous carcinomas,20 cases of borderline ovarian serous neoplasm and 15 cases of benign ovarian serous cystadenoma.Results B7-H4 mRNA was detected in all above tissues.B7-H4 protein expression was detected in the ovarian serous tumor cell cytoplasmic and (or) membranous.The positive proportion of B7-H4 protein in the ovarian serous carcinomas,borderline ovarian serous neoplasms and benign ovarian serous cystadenomas tissues was 75.0% (30/40),50.0% (10/20) and 13.3% (2/15),respectively,and the difference was statistically significant (P0.05).There was no correlation between B7-H4 protein expression with the clinical stage,pathological grade,age,ascites cytology and lymph node metastasis in ovarian serous carcinoma (P0.05).Conclusion The consistent expression of B7-H4 in the ovarian serous carcinoma tissues indicates that B7-H4 plays an important role in cancer generation and development,which should be further investigated as a potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for ovarian cancer.