Expression and clinical significance of annexin A2 and human epididymis protein 4 in endometrial carcinoma

Abstract

Background: It is well-known that the treatment and monitoring methods are limited for advanced stage of endometrial carcinoma. Biological molecules with expression changes during tumor progression become potential therapeutic targets for advanced stage endometrial carcinoma. Annexin A2 (ANXA2) has been reported to be overexpressed in recurrent endometrial carcinoma, and the expression of human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) is upregulated in endometrial carcinoma. What's more, ANXA2 and HE4 interacted in ovarian cancer and promoted the malignant biological behavior. We speculated that their interaction may exist in endometrial carcinoma as well. We evaluated the expression and the correlation relationship of ANXA2 and HE4 in endometrial carcinoma. Methods: The expression of ANXA2 and HE4 protein in 84 endometrial carcinoma, 30 endometrial atypical hyperplasia, and 18 normal endometrial tissue samples were then measured using an immunohistochemical assay in paraffin embedded endometrial tissues. The structural relationship between ANXA2 and HE4 was explored by immunoprecipitation and double immunofluorescent staining. Results: ANXA2 and HE4 co-localized in both endometrial tissues and endometrial carcinoma cells. ANXA2 and HE4 were expressed in 95.2 % and 85.7 % of the the endometrial carcinoma, respectively, which were significantly higher than normal endometrium (55.6 % and 16.7 %, both p∈