| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 醫學研究所 === 92 === Ovarian mucinous cystadenoma is the second common primary epithelial ovarian tumor. It has been mentioned to originate from a single layer of the ovarian surface epithelium (OSE). Once the tumor formed, it may reach an enoromous size even filling the entire abdominal cavity in a short period of time. However, the pathogenesis of this tumor remains unknown. In order to gain a better insight into its pathogenesis, we have analyzed the expression of classical cadherins and gonadal steroid receptors in this tumor. By using degenerate reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), six cadherins subtypes, epithelial-cadherin (E-cad), placental-cadherin (P-cad), neural-cadherin (N-cad), retinal-cadherin (R-cad), cadherin-6 (cad-6) and cadherin-11 (cad-11) were identified in ovarian mucinous cystadenoma. In addition, we compared the messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of these cadherin subtypes in mucinous cystadenoma and OSE by using semiquantitative RT-PCR. We found that E-cad and P-cad were significantly increased, but N-cad, R-cad and cad-6 were significantly decreased in mucinous cystadenoma. The mRNA levels of cad-11 were similar between mucinous cystadenoma and OSE. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that the mRNA levels of sex steroid receptors including estrogen receptor-alpha (ER-α)、estrogen receptor-beta (ER-β)、progesterone receptor (PR) and androgen receptor(AR) were much higher in mucinous cystadenoma than in OSE by using semiquantitative RT-PCR.In conclusion, E-cad, P-cad, ER-α, ER-β,PR and AR were over-expressed, N-cad, R-cad and cad-6 were down-regulated in mucinous cystadenoma, We speculated that the development of ovarian mucinous cystadenoma is mediated at least in part by up-regulation of the E-cad, P-cad, ER-α, ER-β,PR and AR, and down-regulation of the N-cad, R-cad and cad-6. The fast growth characteristics of this tumor are mediated by the stimulation of the gonadal steroids through the over-expressed receptors.
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