Expression of PINCH protein in gliomas and its clinicopathological significance

• Objectives: Particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine-rich protein (PINCH), as a LIM domain adapter protein, functions in the integrin and growth factor signal transduction pathway, and is upregulated in tumor-associated stroma in several types of cancers. However, no study of PINCH has been carried out in gliomas, therefore we examined PINCH expression in gliomas and its clinicopathological significance. Methods: PINCH expression was immunohistochemically examined in 82 gliomas, along with 26 matched adjacent normal brain samples and 10 recurred gliomas. Results: PINCH was strongly expressed in the primary (35%, p = 0.0001) or recurred tumors (40%, p = 0.004) and weak in normal brain tissue. PINCH expression was significantly increased in high-grade gliomas (55 vs. 24%, high- vs. low-grade gliomas, p = 0.004). There was no association of PINCH expression with gender, age, tumor number, size, histological type and tumor location (p > 0.05). Conclusions: PINCH expression may be involved in glioma development and differentiation. Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG.

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