Objective: To investigate whether proline-rich tyrosine kinase-2 (Pyk2) is expressed differently in normal gastric mucosas and gastric carcinoma tissues and further to evaluate its significance.
Methods: Expressions of Pyk2 in 59 cases of normal gastric mucosas and 52 cases of gastric carcinoma tissues were analysed by immunohistochemical methods.
Results: Immunohistochemical studies showed that the positive rates of Pyk2 protein expression in normal gastric mucosas and gastric carcinoma tissues were 86.44% (51/59) and 19.23% (10/52) respectively. The difference between normal gastric mucosas and gastric carcinoma tissues was statistically significant (P<0.05). The positive rates of Pyk2 expression in highly differentiated gastric carcinoma and moderately/lowly differentiated gastric carcinoma were 47.37% (9/19) and 3.03% (1/33) respectively. Statistically significant differences (P<0.05) were observed in the levels of Pyk2 expression between highly differentiated gastric carcinoma and moderately/lowly differentiated gastric carcinoma. The positive rates of Pyk2 expression at different TNM stages gastric carcinoma were respectively: stage I 66.67% (6/9), stage II 30% (3/10), stage III 3.45% (1/29), stage IV 0% (0/4). The differences were statistically significant [(II+III+IV) v I, chi2=15.767, P<0.05].
Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrate that Pyk2 is expressed in normal gastric mucosas, whereas its expression declines significantly or almost disappears in gastric carcinoma tissues. The expression of Pyk2 progressively decreases with increasing grade of malignancy and TNM stages of gastric carcinoma. This phenomenon indicates that Pyk2 expression may be involved in the generation and development of gastric carcinoma.