Expression and significance of Ezrin in human brain astrocytoma

Objective To investigate the expression and significance of Ezrin in human brain astrocytoma.MethodExpression of Ezrin in normal human brain tissues of 10 autopsies and tissues of 107 human astrocytomas was examined by immunohistochemical staining.The analysis of clinicopathologic data was performed to reveal the association between the expression of Ezrin and prognosis of patients.Results The expression of Ezrin was significantly higher in human astrocytoma tissues than that in normal brain tissues(P ＜0.05).In 107 cases of human astrocytomas,the Ezrin expression of 96 cases(89.7%)were positive.The increase of the expression of Ezrin was correlated positively with tumor grades (r =0.551,P＜0.01).The analysis of clinicopathologic data revealed that the postoperative tumor-free survival time was significantly different between the group with strong positive Ezrin expression and another group with weak positive and negative Ezrin expression (X~2 = 29.85,P = 0.000).Conclusions Ezrin immunoreactivity is significantly associated with the malignancy of human astrocytoma.Enhanced ezrin expression maybe play an important role in the development of astrocytoma.Ezrin may provide a useful tool for grading of astrocytoma,and maybe a valuable molecular marker of the prognosis. Key words: Astrocytoma; Ezrin gene; Prognosis