Relationship between expression of CXC chemokine receptor-4 and CXCL12 in gastric cancer and several clinicopathological factors

Objective To investigate the expression of chemokine CXCL12 and its receptor CXC chemokine receptor-4 (CXCR4) protein in gastric cancer and their correlation with several clinicopathological factors.Methods Tirty-five cases of normal gastric tissues and 95 cases of gastric cancer tissues were examined with immunohistochemistry to detect the expression of CXCR4 and CXCL12.The correlation between the CXCR4 and CXCL12 expression and clinicopathological factors was analyzed.Results The positive expression rate of CXCR4 protein in gastric tissue,gastric cancer tissue,lymphatic metastasis,liver metastasis and peritoneal metastasis was 0 (0/35),72.6％ (69/95),89.2％ (69/95),89.4％(58/65) and 100.0％ (14/14),respectively.The positive expression rate of CXCL12 protein in gastric tissue,gastric cancer tissue,lymphatic metastasis,liver metastasis and peritoneal metastasis was 48.6％(17/35),84.2％ (72/95),69.2％ (45/65),52.6％ (10/19) and 5.7％ (4/14),respectively.The expression of CXCR4 and CXCL12 was correlated with the tumor general morphology,depth of invasion,tumor' s invasion on lymphatic nodes and vascular vessels and metastasis of lymph node,liver and peritoneum,but not with age,sex,location of the tumor and tumor size.The expression of CXCL12 was significantly correlated with CXCR4 (r =0.509,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion CXCR4 /CXCL12 in gastric cancer tissues presented high expression level,along with occurrence,progression and metastasis of gastric cancer.The biological axis may become an important molecular marker to cooperate with gastric cancer progression,invasion and metastasis,and indicate poor prognosis. Key words: Gastric cancer;  CXC chemokine receptor-4;  CXCL12