Background/Goal: Cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) is known to play an important role in the early development and progression of various cancers, and the Wnt/-catenin pathway is also involved in cancer progression

Background/Goal: Cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) is known to play an important role in the early development and progression of various cancers, and the Wnt/-catenin pathway is also involved in cancer progression. SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for the statistical analysis. We used the test, (Table I). em Immunoreactivity of CDK8 and -catenin in HCCs and adjacent liver tissues. /em Sixty cases (49%) of HCC showed positive CDK8 expression in the nucleus (Figure 1a). However, we failed to observe any CDK8 expression in the adjacent liver tissues ( em p /em 0.001). A significant number of HCC cases (51%) showed nuclear -catenin staining (Figure 1b), while CDK8 and nuclear -catenin staining was undetected in the adjacent liver tissues ( em p /em 0.001). DXS1692E Aberrant membranous expression of -catenin was detected in 55% of HCCs (Figure 2) and some adjacent liver tissues (9%, em p /em 0.05). Open in a separate window Figure 1 (A) Immunohistochemical staining of HCC for CDK8. Tumor cells showed diffuse strong positive nuclear staining. (B) Immunohistochemical staining of HCC for -catenin. Tumor cells showed positive nuclear staining and some cytoplasmic staining Open in a separate window Figure 2 (A) Immunohistochemical staining of HCC for -catenin. Tumor cells showed strong positive membranous staining and diffuse cytoplasmic staining, but the adjacent normal liver (NL) showed weak membranous staining. Insets showed the higher magnification of the normal liver (left) and HCC (right) Table I Relationship between the expression of CDK8 or -catenin and the clinicopathological parameters of hepatocellular carcinoma Open in a separate window NL: Normal expression, AB: aberrant expression, OTH: others, -catenin N: nuclear -catenin, -catenin M: membranous -catenin, HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma. Only significant p-values are shown. ?Major differentiation by Edmondson grading system The positive expression of CDK8 directly correlated with the aberrant nuclear -catenin ( em p /em 0.005) and membranous -catenin ( em p /em 0.05) expression in HCCs (Table II). We failed to observe any difference between genders with respect to the aberrant expression of CDK8 and -catenin. Table II Relationship between the expression of CDK8 and -catenin in hepatocellular carcinoma Open in a separate window NL: Normal expression, AB: aberrant HLM006474 expression, -catenin N: nuclear -catenin, -catenin M: membranous -catenin em Interrelation between CDK8 HLM006474 and tumor size. /em The aberrant expression HLM006474 of CDK8 ( em p /em 0.005), nuclear -catenin ( em p /em 0.001), and membranous -catenin ( em p /em 0.05) was significantly higher in tumors larger than 5 cm in diameter than in the smaller tumors. em Interrelation between CDK8 and TNM stage /em . The aberrant expression of CDK8 ( em p /em 0.01), nuclear -catenin ( em p /em 0.05), and membranous -catenin ( em p /em HLM006474 0.05) increased significantly in the late stages (stages III-IV) compared to early stages (stages I-II). em Interrelation between CDK8 expression and tumor differentiation. /em The aberrant expression of CDK8, nuclear -catenin, and membranous -catenin showed no statistically significant difference between high- (grades III-IV) and low-grade tumors (grades I-II). em Overall survival analysis with CDK8 and -catenin expression /em . We examined the HCC instances with Kaplan-Meier curves (Shape 3) and discovered that the aberrant manifestation of nuclear -catenin, membranous -catenin, and CDK8/membranous -catenin considerably affected the entire survival price (OSR) of individuals with HCC ( em p /em 0.05 for many). Nevertheless, the aberrant manifestation of CDK8 and CDK8/nuclear -catenin got no significant influence on the OSR ( em p /em 0.05 for many). Further, individuals with aberrant manifestation of both CDK8 and -catenin (nuclear and membranous) exhibited the most severe OSR. On the other hand, those with regular CDK8 and -catenin manifestation demonstrated.