The expression and significance of Dickkopf-1 in epithelial ovarian carcinoma

摘要

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and prognostic value of Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) in epithelialovarian carcinoma. The expression of DKK1 was determined in 56 epithelial ovarian carcinoma tissues, 35 benign ovariancystadenoma tissues, and 12 normal ovarian tissues by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. The DKK1mRNA level in the carcinoma tissues was upregulated (5.5±2.7-fold increase) compared with that in the normal tissues(p<0.0001). The mRNA level of DKK1 in the cystadenoma tissues (1.1±0.4-fold increase) was not statistically different fromthat in the normal tissues (p=0.486). DKK1 protein expression in the carcinoma tissues was also higher (89.29%) than incystadenoma (65.71 %) and normal tissues (58.33%) (p=0.006 and p=0.009, respectively). In epithelial ovarian carcinoma,DKK1 gene and protein overexpression was associated with advanced FIGO stage (p=0.007, p=0.004) and poor differen-tiation grade (p=0.027, p=0.010). Elevated DKK1 protein levels in ovarian carcinoma samples were associated with a pooroutcome in univariate and multivariate analysis (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001, respectively). The study indicated that DKK1 maybe a useful prognostic and diagnostic indicator for epithelial ovarian carcinoma. (Int J Biol Markers 2009; 24: 165-70)