Abstract:

Objective To investigate the expressions of the key molecules β-catenin,c-myc,and cyclinD₁ of the Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway in the NK/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) tissue, and to clarify their relationships with the clinicopathological features of the NKTCL patients.Methods Real-time PCR method was used to detect the expression levels of β-catenin,c-myc,and cyclinD₁ mRNA in human NKTCL cell lines (SNK-6 and YTS) and normal NK cells;the positive expression rates of β-catenin and c-myc proteins in the NKTCL tissue and reactive hyperplasia of lymph node tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry SP method;the correlations among the expressions of β-catenin and c-myc proteins and the clinicopathological features of the NKTCL patients were analyzed;correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the expressions of β-catenin and c-myc proteins of the NKTCL patients;Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the relationship between the expression of β-catenin and overall survival rate of the NKTCL patients.Results The positive expression rates of β-catenin,c-myc,and cyclinD₁ mRNA in the SNK-6 cell line and YTS cell line were significantly higher than those in the normal NK cells(P<0.05);the expression β-catenin and c-myc proteins in NKTCL tissue(24% and 56%) were higher than those in reactive hyperplasia of lymph node tissue (0 and 25%)(P<0.05);the expression of β-catenin was correlated with Ann Arbor stage(P<0.05),and the expression of c-myc was correlated with Ann Arbor stage and Ki-67(P<0.05);there were positive correlations between the expression of β-catenin and the expression of c-myc in the NKTCL patients(r=0.770,P<0.05);the patients with β-catenin positive expression had a shorter overall survival time than the patients with negative expression (P<0.05).Conclusion The key molecules β-catenin,c-myc,and cyclinD₁ of the Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway are highly expressed in the human NKTCL tissue,and they show positive correlations with Ann Arbor stage of the NKTCL patients.

Key words: NK/T cell lymphma, Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway, β-catenin, c-myc, cyclinD₁