Abstract:
Objective:To investigate the expression of arginase-2 (Arg-2) in lung adenocarcinoma and its clinicopathological significance. Methods:Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting were respectively used to detect the expressions of Arg-2 mRNA and protein in 7 cases of lung adenocarcinoma and paracancerous lung tissues, and 1 case of normal lung tissues. The immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression and location of the Arg-2 protein in the paraffin specimens of 108 patients with lung adenocarcinoma. The correlation of Arg-2 expression with the clinicopathological indexes of lung adenocarcinoma and the prognosis of patients were analyzed. Results:Arg-2 mRNA and protein expression levels in lung adenocarcinoma tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent and normal lung tissues. Immunohistochemistry showed that the positive signal of Arg-2 protein was located in the cytoplasm. In 108 cases of lung adenocarcinoma, 74 cases had low expression of the Arg2 protein, other 34 cases had high expression. The positive expression rate of Arg2 in lung adenocarcinoma was higher than that in adjacent tissues (P<0.000 1). The high expression of Arg-2 was positively correlated with the differentiation degree of lung adenocarcinoma (P=0.000 6), lymph node metastasis (P=0.002 8), TNM stage (P=0.021 5), and Ki-67 cell proliferation index (P<0.000 1). The overall survival rate of Arg-2 high expression group was significantly lower than that of Arg-2 low expression group (χ2=6.762, P=0.009). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model analysis showed that Arg-2 high expression was not an independent prognostic factor for lung adenocarcinoma(P=0.051). Conclusions:Arg-2 is associated with the proliferation, differentiation, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage of lung adenocarcinoma. The high expression of Arg-2 indicates that the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma is poor, but it is not an independent prognostic factor.