Expressions and Clinical Significances of NF-κB and caspase-8 in Gastric Cancer

Background: It has been reported that activated transcription factor NF-κB may exert an anti-apoptotic effect by inhibiting caspase-8 expression and plays a role in the development and progression of malignancies.Whether such correlation between NF-κB and caspase-8 also occurs in gastric cancer is still not clear.Aims: To investigate the expressions and clinical significances of NF-κB and caspase-8 in gastric cancer.Methods: Fifty-four surgical specimens of gastric cancer and their paired adjacent non-cancerous tissues were collected and assessed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry for expressions of NF-κB and caspase-8 mRNA and protein,respectively.Correlation between NF-κB and caspase-8 and their relations to clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer were analyzed.Results: Expression level of NF-κB mRNA,as well as the expression intensity and positivity rate of NF-κB protein were significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues(P0.01),while expressions of caspase-8 mRNA and protein were significantly lower in gastric cancer tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues(P0.01).In gastric cancer tissues,NF-κB expression was negatively correlated with caspase-8 expression(P0.05).Correlations were found between NF-κB protein expression and differentiation grade,infiltration depth,and lymph node metastasis(P0.01) of gastric cancer,and caspase-8 protein expression was correlated only with differentiation grade(P0.05).Conclusions: NF-κB signaling pathway is activated and participates in the development and progression of gastric cancer.It mediates the anti-apoptotic effect through down-regulating caspase-8 expression.To some extent,NF-κB might be used as a predictor for prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.