BACKGROUNDIt has been proven that clusterin is a newly apoptosis-related factor and upregulates in many tumors. It plays important roles in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. The antiapoptosis of clusterin seems to be relative to other antiapoptosis factors. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression and significance of clusterin in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue.

METHODSThe expression of clusterin, p53 and Bax in NSCLC were detected by immunohistochemical SP method and Western blot assay.

RESULTSPositive expression rate of clusterin was 79.25% (42/53) in NSCLC tissues which was much higher than that in normal lung tissue (2/16, 12.50%) (Chi-square=23.68, P < 0.05). The expression of clusterin was closely related to pathological differentiation (rs=0.464, P < 0.01), clinical stage (rs =0.320, P < 0.01) and lymph node metastasis (rs=0.255, P < 0.05), but not correlated to the sex (Chi-square=0.007, P > 0.05), age (Chi-square=0.707, P > 0.05) and histological type (Chi-square=0.702, P > 0.05). The expression of clusterin in NSCLC was positively correlated to the expression of p53 (rs=0.589, P < 0.01), but was negatively related to the expression of Bax (rs =-0.346, P < 0.01). The relative expression level of clusterin protein in NSCLC was significantly higher than that in normal lung tissue (0.541±0.010 vs 0.201±0.020) (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSClusterin may play an important role in the biological characteristics of NSCLC by the antiapoptosis pathway.