Comparative Investigation of Dal-1 Tumor Suppressor Protein Expression in Cancerous and Normal Ovarian Specimens



Nikbakht Dastjerdi M¹ ; Abdolali Z² Show Affiliations
Source: Journal of Isfahan Medical School Published:2013

Abstract

Background: DAL-1 (differentially expressed in adenocarcinoma of the lung-1), located on chromosome 18 (18p11.3), has been identified as a tumor suppressor gene. DAL-1 is one member of cell adhesion molecules, play role in cytoskeleton organization with intracellular tight junctions. Inactivation of this gene can destroy the intracellular and cell-cytoskeleton adhesion, which induces malignancy and metastasis. We aimed to compare the DAL-1 tumor suppressor protein expression in cancerous and normal ovarian specimens. Methods: 60 samples of ovarian cancer and 60 adjacent normal tissues from the same tumor samples were used. Immunohistochemistry method used to investigate the expression of DAL-1 protein. For scrutiny of percentage of cells in stained tissue sections, we took advantage of optical microscope and motic advanced plus 2 software. The presence of brown cytoplasm, with or without brown membrane, was considered positive for the expression of DAL-1. Findings: Significantly, expression of DAL-1 protein was reduced in tumoral tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.001). Also, the decrease of protein expression was statistically related with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.036). Conclusion: According to the low incidence of DAL-1 protein in tumor samples compared to normal samples in this study, DAL-1 protein expression can be related with the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer. On the other hand, significantly relation of the absence or reduce expression of this protein in cancerous samples with lymph node metastasis reveals that DAL-1 can be used as a diagnostic marker for ovarian cancer patients.