Annexin II overexpression is correlated with poor prognosis in human gastric carcinoma

Annexins belong to a family of the calcium-dependent phospholipid binding proteins. They are also substrates of receptor tyrosine kinases. Overexpression of Annexin II, which has been reported in various carcinomas, is thought to be associated with cell proliferation, differentiation and cell-cell adhesion in the pathogenesis of carcinoma, but the functions of Annexins have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the role of Annexin II (p36) and its relationship with c-erbB-2 overexpression in gastric carcinoma. We studied Annexin II expression using Western blot analysis in 8 human gastric carcinoma cell lines and expression of Annexin II and c-erbB-2 using, immunohistochemistry in 153 primary gastric carcinomas. Western blot revealed that Annexin II was expressed in 8 human gastric carcinoma cell lines. It was more strongly expressed in the cell membrane than in the cytoplasm of tumor cells in primary gastric carcinoma tissues. Thirty-three percent of all cases were immunopositive for Annexin II, overexpression of which was more frequent in differentiated type (p=0.0009), lymph node, metastasis (p=0.0147) and venous invasion (p=0.0092). Annexin II and c-erbB-2 overexpression were significantly correlated p=0.0002) and patients with Annexin II had poorer prognoses (p=0.0066). Multivariate analysis showed that immunopositivity of both Annexin II and c-erbB-2 was an independent and poor prognostic factor (p=0.0037). In conclusion, Annexin II was overexpressed in advanced gastric carcinomas and it could contribute to the progression of gastric carcinoma.