engleski

A concomitant reciprocal expression of p53 and beta-catenin in meningiomas

Cellular expression of p53 and beta-catenin proteins, and genetic changes of TP53 in 59 meningiomas were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and PCR/RFLP. Gross deletion of p53 gene was observed in one meningioma (9% of informative samples). Our analyses showed that 47, 5% of our total sample demonstrated loss of expression of p53 protein. Moderate and strong p53 expression was noted mostly in nucleus in 8, 5% and 6, 8% of meningiomas respectively. Contrary, beta- catenin, the main Wnt signaling molecule was upregulated in 71, 2% and strong expression was observed in 28, 8% of meningiomas. The levels of the two proteins were significantly strongly negatively correlated in the analyzed meningiomas (P=0, 002). This indicates that meningiomas with lost p53 upregulate beta- catenin and activate Wnt signaling. Besides showing the reciprocal relationship between beta-catenin and p53, we also showed that the expression of p53 was significantly (P=0, 021) associated to higher meningioma grades (II and III) while beta-catenin's upregulation was not associated to malignancy grades. Furthermore, women exhibited significantly higher values of p53 loss when compared to males (P=0, 005). The ongoing research is aiming to offer new molecular markers for meningiomas based on the genetic pathways and molecules involved and help to develop new treatment modalities.

p53 ; beta-catenin ; meningioma

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