Expression of NF-κB and its relation with epithelial-mesenchymal transition in pancreatic cancer

Objective To investigate the expression of NF-κB and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related markers E-cadherin and Vimentin proteins in human pancreatic cancer tissues and its relation with the malignant features. Methods The expression of NF-κB、E-cadherin and Vimentin proteins in 62 cases of pancreatic cancer tissues were detected by using immunohistochemistry and compared with the clinicopathological data of pancreatic cancer. Results The positive expression rate of NF-κB was 81% (50/62), Vimentin protein increased of expression was 61% (38/62), and E-cadherin protein loss of expression was 55 % (34/62) in pancreatic cancer. The positive expression rate of NF-κB was significantly related with the lymph node metastasis (x2=11.761, P＜0.05), distant metastasis (x2=9.225, P＜0.05), the absent expression of epithelial marker E-cadherin protein (r =0.352, P ＜0.05) and the positive expression of mesenchymal marker Vimentin protein (r=0.343, P ＜0.05), but there was no relation with the patients gender,age, tumor location, tumor type and tumor differentiation (P ＞0.05). In addition, the significant correlation of E-cadherin expression loss and Vimentin expression with tumor lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis was found (x 2= 6.914, 4.984, 7.753, 5.144, P ＜0.05). Conclusion The overexpression of NF-κB in pancreatic cancer may accelerate invasion and metastasis of pancreatic cancer through inducing EMT. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms;  Immunohistochemistry;  NF-kappa B;  Epithelial cells;  Cell transformation, neoplastic