Overexpression of Astrocyte Elevated Gene-1 (AEG-1) in Cervical Cancer and its Correlation with Angiogenesis

Abstract

<br/><b>Objectives</b>: To explore the expression of astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1) in cervical cancer and analyzeits correlation with microvascular density (MVD), nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kB p65) and vascular endothelialgrowth factor (VEGF). Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Immunohistochemical MaxVision method was adopted to detectthe expression level of AEG-1, NF-kB p65 and VEGF in 45 samples of invading cervical cancer and 12 samplesof cervicitis from The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. Tumor microvascular endothelialmarker CD34 combined with Weidner was used to determine the MVD in cervical cancer tissue. The positiveexpression and staining conditions of AEG-1, NF-kB p65 and VEGF in cervical cancer tissues were observedunder a light microscope. Correlations between expression of AEG-1 protein and those of NF-Kb p65 andVEGF, as well as MVD, were analyzed using Pearson correlation. <br/><b>Results</b>: The expression levels of AEG-1 were0.186±0.043 in cervical cancer and 0.051±0.002 in chronic cervicitis (p<0.01). Moreover, expression of AEG-1was related to vascular invasion and lymphatic metastasis of cervical cancer (p<0.01), but not with age of thepatients, differentiation degree, tumour size, pathological type and parametrial infiltration (p>0.05). Pearsoncorrelation analysis showed that the expression of AEG-1 was linked with NF-kB p65 (r=0.501, p=0.000), VEGF(r=0.718, p=0.000) as well as MVD in cervical cancer tissue (r=0.815, p=0.000). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: AEG-1 is highlyexpressed in cervical cancer and promotes angiogenesis, which might be related to the fact that AEG-1 activatingthe signal pathway of NF-kB could up-regulate the level of VEGF expression.