Volume 51 (12): 1665-1672, 2003 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Correlation of Staining for LKB1 and COX-2 in Hamartomatous Polyps and Carcinomas from Patients with PeutzJeghers Syndrome
Departments of Epidemiology (CW,CIA,MS,LN,MLF) and Pathology (AR), University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, and Department of Medicine (TJM), Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Correspondence to: Marsha L. Frazier, Dept. of Epidemiology, Unit 189, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030. E-mail: mlfrazier{at}mail.mdanderson.org
Germline mutations of the LKB1 gene lead to PeutzJeghers syndrome (PJS), which is associated with a predisposition to gastrointestinal polyposis and cancer. In this study we tested for germline mutations of LKB1 in 11 patients with PJS from nine families and analyzed the expression patterns of the LKB1 and cyclo-oxgenase-2 (COX-2) proteins in 28 PeutzJeghers polyps (PJPs) and five carcinomas from these patients by immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis. In eight of those families we identified seven different mutations, which consisted of two splice site mutations, two nonsense mutations, one small in-frame deletion, one frame-shift mutation, and one silent mutation. Immunostaining revealed nuclear and cytoplasmic expression of LKB1 protein in 23 PJPs and five carcinomas, nuclear expression alone in one PJP, and loss of LKB1 protein expression in four PJPs, indicating a heterogeneous LKB1 expression pattern in PJPs. Overexpression of COX-2 was detected in 23 (82%) of 28 PJPs and in all carcinomas. Despite heterogeneity in staining of LKB1 among individuals and even among samples from the same individual, we found statistically significant correlations in staining of LKB1 relative to COX-2. These results suggest that COX-2 plays a role in tumorigenesis in PJS and may therefore be considered as a potential target for PJS chemoprevention. (J Histochem Cytochem 51:16651672, 2003)
Key Words: PeutzJeghers syndrome LKB1 COX-2 germline mutation immunohistochemistry
PEUTZJEGHERS syndrome (PJS) is an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by cutaneous hypermelanocytic macules and development of multiple gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyps (Jeghers et al. 1949
Cyclo-oxygenase (COX) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the formation of prostaglandins from arachidonic acid. COX exists in two isoforms, COX-1 and COX-2. COX-2 is constitutively absent in normal tissues but is rapidly induced by certain inflammatory cytokines, tumor promoters, growth factors, and oncogenes (Eberhart and DuBois 1995 Because both LKB1 and COX-2 are involved in tumorigenesis and suppression of apoptosis, we wanted to determine if expression patterns of these two genes are related in PJPs and in carcinomas from PJS patients. Here we developed an antibody that specifically recognizes the LKB1 protein and examined the expression of LKB1 protein and COX-2 protein in PeutzJeghers polyps by immunostaining. We found that COX-2 was overexpressed in most of the PJPs, whereas LKB1 exhibited heterogeneity in its expression patterns. There is a statistically significant correlation between immunostaining of COX-2 and LKB1.
Patients and Samples Peripheral blood samples and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of 28 PJPs and five carcinomas were obtained from 11 patients with PJS after each participant had signed release and informed consent documents. The histopathological diagnosis of PJPs and carcinomas was confirmed in all cases by a single pathologist. Consecutive 46-µm tissue sections were cut from each tissue block for IHC analysis.
DNA Extraction
Mutation Analysis
LKB1 Antibody Preparation
Western Blotting
Immunochemical Analysis
Statistical Analysis
Germline Mutation of the LKB1 Gene in Patients with PJS Mutation analysis was performed on DNA obtained from probands of nine unrelated PJS families (Table 1). Mutations were detected in all but one family. This later family was previously shown to display linkage to the LKB1 locus (Amos et al. 1997
Expression Patterns of LKB1 in PJPs and Carcinomas from Patients with PJS To analyze the endogenous LKB1 protein in the PJPs and carcinomas, we generated a rabbit anti-peptide polyclonal antibody GN2733. After affinity- purification, this sequence-specific anti-LKB1 antibody specifically recognized the human and murine 53KDa LKB1 protein on Western blotting analysis (Figure 1) . We performed anti-LKB1 immunostaining of normal human colon samples (Figure 2A) , which were used as control specimens, as well as the 28 PJPs and five carcinomas from the above-mentioned 11 patients with PJS (summarized in Table 2). LKB1 was expressed in both the nucleus and cytoplasm of the epithelial cells and in stromal cells of the normal colon mucosa. In the epithelial cells of 23 polyps (Figure 2B) and five carcinomas (Figure 2C), LKB1 was expressed in both the cytoplasm and nucleus. This was indistinguishable from the normal expression pattern except that, in most of these cells, LKB1 expression levels were elevated compared with those in the normal epithelial cells. In contrast, one PJP expressed LKB1 in the nucleus, without cytoplasmic staining (Figure 2D), and four PJPs demonstrated loss of nuclear and cytoplasmic staining in epithelial cells, although there was detectable LKB1 protein expression in the stromal cells (Figure 2E). Of note was heterogeneity of the staining pattern in PJPs from the same patients. For example, two PJPs from patient 4 had elevated LKB1 expression in both nucleus and cytoplasm of the epithelial cells, whereas the other two PJPs had loss of LKB1 expression. These results suggest that the IHC expression also depends on the somatic alteration of the polyps, although the germline status is the same.
Expression Pattern of COX-2 Protein in PJPs and Carcinomas from Patients with PJS We also performed COX-2 IHC on normal colon samples, PJPs, and carcinomas from patients with PJS, using a mouse monoclonal anti-COX-2 antibody to assess COX-2 expression (summarized in Table 2). In normal colon tissue specimens, COX-2 was undetectable in epithelial cells but there was some immunostaining in stromal cells (Figure 2A). In contrast, COX-2 was overexpressed in the cytoplasm of the epithelial cells in 23 PJPs (Figure 2B) and five carcinomas (Figure 2C). In the remaining five PJPs, COX-2 expression was absent (Figures 2D and 2E). We compared the results of anti-LKB1 and anti-COX-2 immunostaining and found that COX-2 staining corresponded to LKB1 staining. All these five PJPs without COX-2 staining showed loss of LKB1 expression in the cytoplasm and nucleus (Figure 2E) or in the cytoplasm only (Figure 2D). Statistical analysis of the expression of polyps and carcinomas listed in Table 2 showed a highly significant correlation in antibody expression. Over all the samples, the Spearman correlation between staining for cytoplasmic staining of LKB1 and COX-2 was 0.93. For nuclear staining of LKB1 vs COX-2 the correlation was 0.91, and for nuclear vs cytoplasmic staining of LKB1 the correlation was 0.92. All of these results are significant at p<0.0001. When the data were stratified by polyp vs carcinoma histology, the correlations remained over 90% for all comparisons and the correlation between cytoplasmic LKB1 staining and COX-2 staining in carcinomas was 100%. Analysis of variance showed no significant differences in antibody staining between carcinomas and polyps or between polyps of the small bowel and other locations.
In this study we described the LKB1 expression patterns in PJPs and carcinomas from 11 patients with PJS. We found two predominant patterns of staining in the samples. In one there was both nuclear and cytoplasmic expression. In a second pattern there was loss of expression for LKB1. Most of the PJPs and all carcinomas showed expression in the epithelium. Both wild-type and in most cases truncated LKB1 protein contribute to the staining from the anti-LKB1 antibody GN2733 corresponding to the N-terminal of LKB1. It has also been reported that LKB1 was expressed in polyps from LKB1+/- mice (Miyoshi et al. 2002
We have identified seven types of germline mutations in eight patients with PJS from eight different families. According to Nezu et al. (1999)
The nuclear localization pattern found for only specimen 9 from patient 7 is highly consistent with the inability of the mutant SL26 to retain cytoplasmic LKB1, as reported by Nezu et al. (1999)
We demonstrated that COX-2 was overexpressed in the epithelium of 85% (28/33) of the PJPs and carcinomas. This is a somewhat higher rate than the 70% (16/23) and 64% (7/11) recently reported in two smaller studies by Rossi et al. (2002)
It has been reported that increased levels of COX-2 in intestinal epithelial cells increased their adhesion and simultaneously decreased their response to certain apoptotic stimuli (Tsujii and DuBois 1995 In summary, our results demonstrate that COX-2 is overexpressed in polyps and carcinomas from patients with PJS. Treatment with selective COX-2 inhibitors, such as celecoxib and NSAIDs, has been shown to induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells, including those of the colon, stomach, and prostate. Therefore, the finding of overexpression of COX-2 in PJPs and carcinomas provides insight into the development of chemopreventive strategies for this disease.
Supported in part by a NIH Grant R03 (CA 89843-1), a NIH Cancer Center Support Grant CA16672, American Cancer Society Grant RPG 99-030-01-CCE-3, and the Janis Davis Gordon Memorial Fellowship from the Division of Cancer Prevention at MD Anderson Cancer Center. We thank the patients and their families for their cooperation. We also thank Mariann Crapanzano for her editorial comments.
Received for publication March 24, 2003; accepted August 13, 2003
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