Clinical significance of changes of expression of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in renal clear cell carcinoma

Z. Liu, X.-W. Liu, S.-A. Liu, J.-J. Lv, Q. Fu

Department of Urology, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, China. qiang_fu111@163.com

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• Oncology

OBJECTIVE: To explore the changes and clinical significance of expression of β-catenin in renal carcinoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:  We selected 46 patients with renal clear cell carcinoma who were hospitalized from May 2013 to March 2016 and healthy adults (controls) matched for age and body weight, who were hospitalized in the physical examination center of our hospital during the same period. Peripheral blood of patients and controls was drawn for ELISA. After surgery, renal carcinoma and normal peritumoral tissue samples were harvested for immunohistochemical staining, Western blot analysis and qRT-PCR was used to observe changes of β-catenin expression in renal carcinoma tissues.

RESULTS: Compared with controls, ELISA showed that there were significant differences in β-catenin levels in peripheral blood of patients with renal carcinoma (p<0.05). Western blot and qRT-PCR showed that the expression levels of β-catenin in renal carcinoma tissues were higher than in normal peritumoral tissues and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.05). Immunohistochemical staining showed that β-catenin was increased significantly in renal carcinoma tissue compared with normal peritumoral tissues (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: β-catenin expression was significantly increased in the tumor tissues of patients with renal carcinoma. The measurement of β-catenin expression levels in peripheral blood from patients could be used for early diagnosis of renal carcinoma, which is of great clinical significance.

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