BACKGROUNDIntegrin-linked kinase (ILK) is a Ser/Thr protein kinase. Many studies have showed that ILK was closely related to occurrence, proliferation, invasion and metastasis in many malignant tumors, and it appeared to be an upstream cross point of tumor-associated factors. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the expression of ILK and some clinical pathological factors in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and analyze whether there is relativity between ILK and E-cadherin.

METHODSImmunohistochemical S-P method was adopted to detect the expression of ILK and E-cadherin proteins in 76 NSCLC cases with the neighboring noncancerous tissue, and the expressions of them in 30 fresh NSCLC samples were determined with Western Blot assay.

RESULTSImmunohistochemically, the overexpression of ILK protein in NSCLC was 53/76 (69.7%), including 33/44 (75.0%) squamous cell carcinoma and 20/32 (62.5%) adenocarcinoma, but its expression was not related to the histological type (P= 0.247 ). Expression of ILK was related to differentiation (rs=-0.296, P=0.009), lymph node metastasis (rs=0.311, P=0.006) and clinical stage (rs=0.350, P=0.002). Moreover, Kaplan-Meier survival estimates showed a significant correlation between ILK expression and patient survival in Log-rank test (P=0.006). Overexpression of ILK in NSCLC was associated with unfavorable prognosis. An inverse correlation between the levels of ILK and E-cadherin was found (rs=-0.514, P < 0.001). Western Blot result showed that the level of ILK in the tumor tissues was noticeably higher than that in the normal tissues (t=-6.811, P=0.0002), and an inverse correlation between the levels of ILK and E-cadherin was proved (P=0.001).

CONCLUSIONSIn NSCLC, ILK can interact with some tumor-associated factors, through which it appears to be involved in several oncogenesis-related events ,including promotion of cell survival ,as well as cell migration and invasion.ILK keeps significant inverse correlation to E-cadherin,andit would be one of the pathways for ILK to affect differentia-tion,clinical stage ,lymph node metastasis and prognosis of patients .ILK expression can be a useful predictorof poor prognosis in NSCLC,and the detections of ILK and E-cadherin will help us better to predict prognosisof patients .

BACKGROUNDSerine threonine kinase 15 (STK15) is a kind of mitotic kinase. The overexpression of STK15 is significantly associated with carcinogenesis in many tumors, however, its expression and significance in human lung cancer are still unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression of STK15 in squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the lung and to analyze the correlation between STK15 expression and clinicopathological factors.

METHODSThe pattern of STK15 protein expression was detected in 44 squamous cell carcinomas, 36 adenocarcinomas and 20 paracancerous lung tissue samples by immunohistochemistry method using anti-STK15 antibody. The relative quantity of STK15 protein expression was detected by Western blot, and STK15 mRNA expression was detected by RT-PCR in 40 fresh lung cancer samples and corresponding paracancerous lung tissues.

RESULTSPositive expression rate of STK15 protein was 68.75% (55/80) in lung cancer tissues and 0% in paracancerous controls (P < 0.001). STK15 expression was significantly related to differentiation grade of lung cancer (P=0.011), but not to histological classification, TNM stages or lymphatic metastasis (P > 0.05). The relative expression levels of STK15 protein (P < 0.001 ) and STK15 mRNA (P < 0.001) in lung cancer tissues were both significantly higher than those of corresponding paracancerous lung tissues.

CONCLUSIONSThe expression of STK15 protein and STK15 mRNA is significantly higher in lung cancer tissues than that in paracancerous lung tissues. The expression of STK15 correlates with differentiation of lung cancer.

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune liver disease accompanied by cholestasis, with the histological feature of non-purulent cholangitis. This article briefly describes the advantages and limitations of the traditional pathological staging systems such as Rubin stage, Scheuer stage, and Ludwig stage and the latest Nakanuma stage. Among them, Nakanuma stage refines the histological grading and staging standards to reduce the chance of missed diagnosis due to sampling errors, thus providing more adequate diagnostic and prognostic information for the clinic. A combination of new and traditional staging systems can provide guidance to the diagnosis, treatment, and research of PBC.