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Epidemiology and Prevention |
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5, Canada [T. K., L. G., A. So., A. Sc., E. P. D.]; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L5, Canada [T. K., E. P. D.]; Clinical Research Unit, Department Obstetrics and Gynecology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany [N. H., B. S., J. D., M. S.]; and Department of Nephrology and Internal Medicine, Medical University, Bialystok, Poland [M. M.]
| ABSTRACT |
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1000 µg/liter; n = 85 samples). Elevated serum levels were seen in 24 of 40 (62%) of ovarian cancer patients. Higher ascites fluid hK8 concentration was associated with better ovarian cancer progression-free survival (P = 0.02). In both serum and ascites fluid, there is a significant correlation between hK8 and CA125 concentration (r = 0.51 and 0.58, respectively). The serum concentration of hK8 was an indicator of progression on regression on longitudinal monitoring of an ovarian cancer patient. These data suggest that hK8 protein is detectable in ovarian cancer tissue extracts, serum, and ascites fluid, indicating that it may serve as a new ovarian cancer marker. | INTRODUCTION |
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KLK8/neuropsin is a member of the hK family (1 , 2) (KLK8 is a gene, and hK8 is a protein, according to the official kallikrein gene nomenclature; Ref. 8 ). Originally, KLK8 was cloned from a human skin cDNA library as a homologue of mouse neuropsin (9) . The mouse homologue has highest expression in skin and brain, especially the hippocampus, and was assumed to be associated with neural plasticity, memory formation, and some forms of epilepsy (10, 11, 12, 13) . KLK8 mRNA is increased in Alzheimers disease hippocampus compared with controls, which suggests that KLK8 may indeed have a relationship with neural plasticity in humans (14) . KLK8 transcripts in ovarian cancer tissues are expressed at higher levels than in controls (15) . Two splice variants of KLK8 have been detected in ovarian cancer (16) . Because the KLK8 gene is predicted to encode for a secreted serine protease, it is possible that the gene product, hK8, may have diagnostic value for cancer, similarly to hK3 (PSA; Ref. 3 ), hK6, hK10 (normal epithelial cell-specific 1), and hK11 (trypsin-like serine protease; Refs. 4, 5, 6, 7 ). To date, there is no literature describing any relationship between hK8 protein expression and cancer. We here report for the first time elevation of hK8 protein in serum, ascites fluid, and tumor cytosol fractions of advanced stage ovarian cancer patients.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Cytosolic Fractions of Ovarian Cancer Tissues.
Preparation of cytosol fractions from normal, benign, and primary cancer tissues at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Technical University of Munich, Germany, is described by Schmalfeldt et al. (18)
. Cytosol fractions were stored in liquid nitrogen until use. Ascites fluids were obtained from patients with advanced stage ovarian cancer stage International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology II (n = 7), III (n = 20), and IV (n = 4) by tapping the patients and collection of the fluid into a sterile bag by flushing the needle and bag with heparin. The ascites fluids were then centrifuged at 10,000 x g for 30 min to sediment cells and any debris. The supernatants were harvested, aliquoted, and stored at -80°C until use. An additional set of 54 ascites fluids from ovarian cancer patients with unknown stage was also used. The study to collect tissue and ascites fluid from ovarian cancer patients to assess the patients risk profiles was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital (Klinikum rechts der Isar) of the Technical University of Munich. All patients received treatment according to consensus recommendations at that time.
Fractionation of Biological Fluids with Gel Filtration High-pressure Liquid Chromatography.
To determine the molecular mass of the protein detected in the biological fluids and tissue extracts, ascites fluid and ovarian cancer serum were fractionated with gel filtration chromatography, as described elsewhere (19)
. The fractions were then collected and analyzed for hK8 by using the hK8-ELISA.
Statistical Analysis.
Statistical analysis was performed with SAS software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). All data were analyzed with nonparametric tests, and relationships between different variables were assessed by Spearman or Pearson correlation after logarithmic transformation of data. Survival probability was plotted according to Kaplan-Meier, and differences between curves were evaluated by the Log-rank test. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
| RESULTS |
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56 and 35 times lower than the mean seen in the ascites fluid from ovarian cancer patients (P < 0.01 by the Mann-Whitney test).
Ovarian Cancer Cytosolic Extracts.
We analyzed hK8 protein in cytosol fractions of 20 ovarian cancer tissues, along with extracts from 10 normal ovarian tissues and 10 ovarian tissues with benign disease. The data were expressed as nanograms of hK8 protein per milligram of protein (Fig. 3)
. The highest levels of hK8 were <4.8 ng/mg protein in normal tissues, whereas only 3 samples (30%) from the benign disease group exceeded this level. However, 11 of 20 samples (55%) from the ovarian cancer tissues demonstrated higher levels of hK8, as compared with normal tissues. These data suggest that in
55% of patients, hK8 protein is up-regulated in the cancerous tissue, in comparison with normal tissues.
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62% (Fig. 4)
1 year. The levels of CA125 and hK8 correlated considerably, indicating that hK8 could also have value for disease monitoring.
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-1 antichymotrypsin). To investigate if hK8 is circulating in various molecular forms, we have fractionated serum of an ovarian cancer patient with elevated hK8, with gel filtration chromatography, as described earlier (19)
and analyzed all fractions with the hK8-ELISA. The hk8 immunoreactivity eluted as a single peak with a molecular mass of
30 kDa, consistent with the molecular weight of free (uncomplexed) hK8. | DISCUSSION |
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Previously, a number of other kallikreins, including KLK4, KLK5, KLK6, KLK7, KLK8, KLK9, KLK10, KLK11, KLK14, and KLK15, have been associated with various forms of malignancy and especially cancers of the ovary, breast, prostate, and testis (reviewed in Refs. 1 and 2 ).
We have reported previously that at least three kallikreins, hK6, hK10, and hK11, constitute new serum biomarkers for ovarian carcinoma (4, 5, 6) . We, and others, have also shown that at least nine kallikrein genes are differentially expressed in ovarian cancer, at the mRNA level (1 , 2 , 15 , 16 , 20 , 21) . We recently reported that the KLK8 gene, at the mRNA level, is up-regulated in ovarian cancer and that its higher expression is associated with favorable outcome (16) . However, no literature exists on levels of hK8 protein in either tissues or serum. We here demonstrate that hK8 protein expression is higher in cancerous tissues, in comparison with benign and normal tissues. Furthermore, we report for the first time very high levels of hK8 in ascites fluid of women with advanced ovarian cancer (stage IIIV) and that higher ascites fluid hK8 concentration is seen in patients who have lower stage disease. Similarly, progression-free survival in patients with higher levels of hK8 in ascites fluid is longer. We found a significant correlation between ascites fluid hK8 and CA125. Peritoneal fluids from noncancer patients do not contain much hK8, suggesting that this enzyme is likely secreted by tumor cells in ovarian cancer. These data suggest that hK8 concentration in ovarian cancer may be a marker of differentiation, with higher levels seen in more differentiated and less aggressive tumors. These proposals need verification with a larger series of specimens.
We also report here, for the first time, elevation of serum hK8 concentration in a proportion of patients with ovarian cancer. Our preliminary data indicate that patients with other cancers rarely have elevations of serum hK8. Further verification of these findings will require a larger series of patients with well-defined clinical data. However, it is interesting to note that the degree of hK8 overexpression at the ovarian cancer tissue level (55%) is similar to the percentage of patients with elevated serum levels (62%). These data prompt us to speculate that its likely the subset of patients with elevated serum levels are those in whom hK8 is overexpressed in the cancerous tissues. This proposal should be examined in the future by analyzing a larger set of tissues and serum from the same patients. Furthermore, we provide preliminary evidence that hK8 may have some value for ovarian cancer patient monitoring (Fig. 6)
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It is now well accepted that a single cancer biomarker will likely not provide all of the necessary information for cancer diagnosis, monitoring, and prediction of therapeutic response. It seems reasonable that the classical ovarian cancer biomarker, CA125, should be tested in combination with the four kallikreins that have been reported to increase in ovarian cancer (hK6, hK8, hK10, and hK11), as well as other candidate biomarkers, to devise a diagnostic/prognostic panel for ovarian cancer (24 , 25) . In this respect, hK8 could be a member of this panel.
Many kallikreins interact with various circulating proteinase inhibitors (26
, 27)
. We examined the molecular forms of hK8 in serum. Our assay detected a single peak of
30 kDa, which corresponds to the free hK8 protein. It is thus likely that hK8 circulates in serum in its free form. Alternatively, it is possible that the fraction of hK8, which is bound to proteinase inhibitors (like
2-macroglobulin), is not recognized by hk8-ELISA. More studies will be necessary to clarify these issues.
In conclusion, we here report, for the first time, hK8 overexpression in ovarian cancer tissues and high levels of hK8 in serum and ascites fluid of ovarian cancer patients. This kallikrein may be an additional diagnostic, prognostic, monitoring, and predictive marker of ovarian carcinoma.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (to E. P. D.) and ONCOTherapeutics, Inc. Dr. T. Kishi is supported by a grant from the Van Slyke Society of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X5, Canada. Phone: (416) 586-8443; Fax: (416) 586-8628; E-mail: ediamandis{at}mtsinai.on.ca ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: hK, human kallikrein; PSA, prostate-specific antigen. ![]()
Received 9/ 6/02. Accepted 3/28/03.
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1-antichymotrypsin is the major form of prostate-specific antigen in serum of patients with prostatic cancer: assay of the complex improves clinical sensitivity for cancer. Cancer Res., 51: 222-226, 1991.This article has been cited by other articles:
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