Significance and expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and cell proliferating marker MIBª²1 in human superatentorial astrocytic tumors

    ZHANG Zhongª²Lin, LIU Chuª²Wei, XIE Changª²Hou, WANG Tue

    1Department of Neurosurgery, First Hospital£¬Xi¬ðan Jiaotong University, Xi¬ðan 710061,China, 2Department of Neurosurgery,Chang¬ðan Hospital, Xi¬ðan 710061,China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿AIM£º To study the relationship and the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and cell proliferating marker MIBª²1 in superatentorial astrocytic tumors, and to describe their functions in the pathological mechanism of human superatentorial astrocytic tumors. METHODS: Tissue samples were obtained from 26 patients with low-grade astrocytomas (grade¢ñand ¢ò), 9 with anaplastic astrocytomas(grade ¢ó), and 12 with highª²grade astrocytomas (grade ¢ôor glioblastomas). Normal brain tissue samples were obtained from 5 patients with other brain diseases. Immunohistochemical staining was performed using the avidinª²biotin complex method to examine the expression of eNOS and MIBª²1. The levels of eNOS expression in endothelial cells were evaluated as slight (+), moderate (¬¶), and intense (¬·). The cell proliferating marker MIBª²1 was assessed as MIBª²1 cell count for tumor cells. RESULTS: The expression of eNOS was negative in all the specimens of normal brain tissue, slight in 15 and moderate in 11 specimens of lowª²grade astrocytoma, slight in 1, moderate in 6 and intense in 2 of anaplastic astrocytoma, and moderate in 2 and intense in 10 specimens of glioblastoma. The MIBª²1 cell count was 2.1 for low-ª²grade astrocytomas, 8.9 for anaplastic astrocytomas, and 24.5 for glioblastomas. The MIBª²1 cell count for slight, moderate and intense eNOS expression was 2.23, 6.29, and 20.40, respectively. CONCLUSION: The expression of eNOS and MIBª²1 are significantly correlated with the histopathologicol grade or malignancy in human astrocytic tumors. eNOS expression is significantly correlated with MIBª²1 expression. ......