Expression of CXCR4 in colorectal cancer and its relationship with microvessel density and tumor metastasis

Objective To investigate the expression of chemokine receptor CXCR4 and analyse the relationship between the expression of CXCR4 and microvessel density(MVD) and tumor metastasis in colorectal cancer.Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of CXCR4 in 56 cases of colorectal cancer tissues and 10 cases of normal colorectal tissues adjacent to tumor.Factor Ⅷ immunostaining was used to examine the microvessel density.The correlation between the the expression of chemokine receptor CXCR4 and MVD and tumor metastasis was evaluated.Results The expression level of CXCR4 in colorectal cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in normal colorectal tissues adjacent to tumor.The expression of CXCR4 was relevant to lymph node metastasis,clinical stage and MVD.Conclusions The expression of CXCR4 was significantly increased in colorectal cancer tissues.CXCR4 may promote the angiogenesis and the metastasis in colorectal cancer.