Purpose: To evaluate the clinical significance of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 concentrations in the sera of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Methods: The study group comprised 48 patients with colorectal carcinoma and 24 healthy controls. The serum concentration of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 proteins was evaluated by the ELISA method. Results: The mean level of MMP-2 in the sera of patients with colorectal cancer was 39.4 ng/ml and was significantly lower compared with the control (p<0.001). A decrease in TIMP-2 protein in the sera of patients with colorectal cancer was also observed where its mean level was 132.3 ng/ml. The concentration of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 did not correlated with any clinicopathological parameters, except for the patients’ age. In addition, the concentration of MMP-2 in the sera of patients with CRC correlated negatively with the number of white blood cells in the blood and the prothrombin index. The concentration of TIMP-2 correlated positively with potassium and urea concentration in the blood. Conclusions: The results of our study indicate lack of clinical usefulness of determining the levels of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in the sera of patients with colorectal cancer. However, these proteins play an important role in the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer.
Purpose: Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF- 15) protein belongs to a transforming growth factor-β family which determines the growth and differentiation of cells. In cancers, GDF-15 influences on the proliferation, differentiation, viability, migration and invasiveness of cancer cells. The aim of our study was to evaluate the expression of GDF-15 in the tissue and its levels in sera of patients with colorectal cancer. Materials and methods: The level of GDF-15 in the sera of 55 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer was determined using the ELISA method whereas expression of this protein was performed by immunohistochemical method. Results: The mean value of GDF-15 levels in the sera of patients with colorectal cancer was significantly higher than in healthy control group (p<0.001). The expression of GDF-15 in the tissue was weak, moderate and strong in 23.6%, 15.7% and 60.7% cases, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that the expression of GDF-15 correlated with patients’ age (p<0.005) and non-mucinous type of cancer (p<0.001). The high GDF-15 levels in the serum was associated with tumor size (p<0.01) and distant metastases (p<0.05). Conclusions: According to our results, we postulate that the level of GDF-15 in serum can be use to assess the metastatic behavior of colorectal cancer
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