Expression of Ezrin and Phosphorylated Ezrin (pEzrin) in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

ABSTRACT

It has been suggested that ezrin activation plays a key role in the regulation of cancer metastasis. In this study, we immunohistochemically investigated the expression patterns of total ezrin and its two phosphorylated forms, pEzrin^{− Thr567} and pEzrin^{− Tyr353}, in 66 samples of invasive pancreatic carcinomas and 11 samples of normal pancreas tissues. Positive expressions of ezrin and pEzrin^{− Thr567} were detected in most PDAC tissues, significantly higher than that of pEzrin^{− Tyr353}. Furthermore, overexpression of pEzrin^{− Tyr353} in pancreatic cancers was associated with positive lymph node metastasis, less differentiation, pAkt overexpression, and shorter survival times. pEzrin^{− Tyr353} may be a potent prognosis predictor for pancreatic cancer.

Keywords: :

• Pancreatic cancer
• Phosphorylation
• Ezrin
• Metastasis
• Prognosis

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported by funds from the Technologies R&D Program of Shandong Province, China (2005GG1102003), and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2007AA021004). We are grateful to Dr. Meng Bin at the Department of Pathology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Drs. Zhang Fang and Yongning Xin at Qingdao Municipal Hospital, and Dr. Qing Jia at Institute of Basic Medicine, Shandong Academy of Medical Science, for their kind help with samples collection and technical support.