The abnormal expression of β-catenin.APC in adrenal cortical adenoma

Objective To investigate the role and significance of the β-cmenin,APc in the adrenal conical adenoma.Methods Using immunohistochemistry,the expression levels of APC,and β-catenin were detected in 36 patients with adrenal adenoma and 10 cases of the normal tissues adjacent to cancerous tissues.β-catenin exon 5 mutation was analyzed by bi-directional sequencing analysis.Results In the normal tissues,the expression of β-catenin Was observed in the cell membrance,but not in the nucleus or cytoplasm.There were 12 cases of adrenal adenoma having abnormal β-catenin staining in the cytoplasm or nucleus.The ectopic expression rate was 38.8%(12/36),significantly hisher than in normal tissue(P＜0.01).The expression of APC mainly located in the cell cytoplasm in the normal tissues(10/10).Immunohistochemical staining showed that there were 28 eases having normal expression of APC and 7 cases having loss expression of APC in adrenal adenoma,with the positive rate being 77.7%(28/36).As compared with normal tissue.the difference Was statistically significant.β-catenin exon 3 mutation wag not found in 10normal tissues.but found in 5 cases out of 36 eases of adrenal adenoma(13.8%,5/36,P＜0.05).Condusion β-catenin and APC are key elements in the WNT signaling pathway.The β-catenin exon 3 mutadion in the adrenal adenoma carcinogenesis is a frequent event. Key words: Adrenal adenoma;  β-catenin;  Signaling pathway