α-taxilin overexpression correlates with proliferation activity but not with prognosis of colorectal cancer.
α-taxilin is a binding partner of syntaxins, which are the central coordinators of membrane traffic. Expression of α-taxilin has been implicated in the development of human glioblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma. In the present study, the clinical significance of α-taxilin expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) was investigated. A total of 20 cases of colorectal intramucosal adenocarcinoma (IMA) with adenoma were analyzed using immunohistochemical analysis. The results demonstrated that α-taxilin expression was significantly associated with Ki-67 indices in adenoma and IMA. The patients expressed equally high levels of α-taxilin in the upper third of the intramucosal glands. These results suggest that α-taxilin expression is significantly associated with the proliferative activity of CRC, but that its overexpression alone is not a biomarker of malignancy. Next, α-taxilin expression was investigated in 57 advanced CRCs and its association with prognosis was determined. Well-differentiated and/or moderately differentiated adenocarcinomas in the left-sided colon with anatomic stage II and/or III were analyzed. α-taxilin expression levels were high on the surface of nearly all tumors, but variable at the deep advancing edge. α-taxilin levels at the advancing edge were not significantly associated with local invasiveness or prognosis. In conclusion, α-taxilin is a cell proliferation marker in colorectal epithelial neoplasms but cannot be a marker of malignancy or prognosis of CRCs.
['Kanamori|Akira|A|', 'Imai|Yasuo|Y|', 'Ihara|Keisuke|K|', 'Nagata|Hitoshi|H|', 'Nakano|Masakazu|M|', 'Tominaga|Keiichi|K|', 'Shimizu|Hiroaki|H|', 'Makiyama|Tomihiko|T|', 'Kuroda|Hajime|H|', 'Shirataki|Hiromichi|H|', 'Hiraishi|Hideyuki|H|']
α-taxilin proliferation prognosis colorectal cancer Ki-67