Expression of HMGB1 protein in human pancreatic carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of high mobility group box 1(HMGB1) in human pancreatic carcinoma and explore its relationship to tumor size, differention, regional invasion, lymphatic and blood stream metastases of human pancreatic carcinoma. Methods Immunohistochemi- cal SABC method was used to detect the expression of HMGB1 in 73 pancreatic cancer tissues, 10 juxtacancerous tissues and 6 normal pancreatic tissues. Results Strong expression of HMGB1 was present in pancreatic cancer tissues (79.6%), only very low expression was found in juxtacancerous tissues, and no expression was found in normal pancreatic tissues. HMGB1 was found to be significantly correlated with tumor size, regional invasion, and lymphatic and blood stream metastasis(P 0.01), but no significant correlation was found with the differentiation degree (P 0.05). Conclusions Strong expression of HMGB1 in pancreatic cancer may prove to be a parameter for determining tumor growth, metastasis, and prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma.