Apoptosis and Proliferative Activity of Advanced Gastric Cancer

Takao Inada, Yoshiro Ogata, Akira Ichikawa*, Seiji Igarashi*

Department of Surgery and Laboratory*, Tochigi Cancer Center

We investigated the significance of apoptosis in advanced gastric cancer and its relation to the expression of bcl-2 oncoprotein, S-phase fraction and DNA ploidy. We examined apoptosis by the TUNEL method using flow cytometer, bcl-2 oncoprotein by immunohistochemistry and clinicopathological features in 101 resected advanced gastric carcinomas, which were not treated by preoperative chemotherapy or radiotherapy. DNA ploidy and S-phase fraction were also determined by flow cytometry. Among these factors, only the S-phase fraction showed a correlation with the histological stage of gastric carcinoma. The expression of bcl-2 oncoprotein was significantly correlated with a low apoptotic positive cell fraction and frequently observed in undifferentiated cell type carcinoma than differentiated type. The S-phase fractions of undifferentiated cell type were greater than those of differentiated cell type and showed a tendency of a reverse correlation with apoptosis. These results indicate that apoptosis which is regulated bcl-2 has some influence on the proliferative activity of gastric carcinoma.

Key words
apoptosis of advanced gastric cancer, bcl-2 oncoprotein and apoptosis

Reprint requests
Takao Inada Department of Surgery, Tochigi Cancer Center
Yohanan 4-9-13, Utsunomiya-city, 320 JAPAN

Accepted
July 10, 1996

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