Over-expression of Decoy Receptor 3 in Gastric Precancerous Lesions and Carcinoma

Abstract

Introduction: Decoy receptor 3 (DcR3), a newly discovered member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) superfamily, is not only upregulated in cancer cells derived from various cell lineages, but also correlates with the overall survival of certain cancer patients. The objective of the present study was to investigate the expression of DcR3 protein in tissue of gastric precancerous lesions and carcinoma. Material and methods: The expression of DcR3 protein in tissue of gastric carcinoma (GC, n=79), dysplasia (n=45), intestinal metaplasia (IM, n=37) and chronic superficial gastritis (CSG, n=42) was investigated by immunohistochemistry. Results: Expression of DcR3 in GC was significantly higher than that in dysplasia (P<.05); IM (P<.05) and CSG tissue (P<.001), respectively. It was also found that DcR3 expression in well differentiated GC was significantly lower than that in poorly differentiated specimens (P<.05). Moreover, patients in tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages I and II showed significantly lower DcR3 expression compared with that in stages III and IV ( P<.05). In addition, DcR3 expression in both lymph node metastasis-negative patients and patients without systemic metastasis was significantly decreased in comparison with that in lymph node metastasis-positive patients(P<.05) and patients with systemic metastasis (P<.001). Conclusions: DcR3 is over-expressed in human GC and positively correlated with development and metastases of gastric lesions. The DcR3 gene might serve as an important molecular biological indicator in diagnosing and predicating the clinical outcome in GC patients.