Expression of fibroblast activation protein in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma and its clinicopathological significance.
AIM
To examine fibroblast activation protein (FAP) expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and to analyze its relationship with the clinicopathology of PDAC.


METHODS
FAP expression was examined in 134 PDAC specimens by immunohistochemistry, and in four pancreatic cancer cell lines (SW1990, Miapaca-2, AsPC-1 and BxPC-3) by Western blotting assay. We also analyzed the association between FAP expression in PDAC cells and the clinicopathology of PDAC patients.


RESULTS
The results showed that the FAP was ex-pressed in both stromal fibroblast cells (98/134, 73.1%) and carcinoma cells (102/134, 76.1%). All 4 pancreatic cancer cell lines expressed FAP protein at different levels. Protein bands corresponding to the proteolytically active 170-kDa seprase dimer and its 88-kDa seprase subunit were identified. Higher FAP expression in carcinoma cells was associated with tumor size (P < 0.001), fibrotic focus (P = 0.003), perineural invasion (P = 0.009) and worse clinical outcome (P = 0.0085).


CONCLUSION
FAP is highly expressed in carcinoma cells and fibroblasts in PDAC tissues, and its expression is associated with desmoplasia and worse prognosis.
['Shi|Min|M|', 'Yu|Dang-Hui|DH|', 'Chen|Ying|Y|', 'Zhao|Chen-Yan|CY|', 'Zhang|Jing|J|', 'Liu|Qing-Hua|QH|', 'Ni|Can-Rong|CR|', 'Zhu|Ming-Hua|MH|']
D000230:Adenocarcinoma D045744:Cell Line, Tumor D010450:Endopeptidases D005260:Female D005355:Fibrosis D018093:Gelatinases D006801:Humans D007150:Immunohistochemistry D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate D008297:Male D008565:Membrane Proteins D046228:Microarray Analysis D008875:Middle Aged D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms D012697:Serine Endopeptidases
Fibroblast activation protein Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma Prognosis Cancer-associated fibroblasts