Expression and prognostic significance of human growth and transformation-dependent protein in gastric carcinoma and gastric adenoma.

Human growth and transformation-dependent protein is a hypoxia-responsive, proapoptotic protein downstream of hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha. Its function and expression pattern in human cancers are largely unknown. We investigated the expression profile of human growth and transformation-dependent protein using immunohistochemistry in gastric tissues including cancer (n = 138), adenoma (n = 37), intestinal metaplasia (n = 20), and normal gastric epithelium (n = 20), then correlated human growth and transformation-dependent protein expression in tumors with clinicopathologic features. Human growth and transformation-dependent protein showed strong staining in the cytoplasm of intestinal-type adenocarcinoma and gastric adenoma, whereas normal gastric antral mucosa showed no staining. Human growth and transformation-dependent protein expression in gastric cancer showed a close association with the Lauren classification, tumor stage, and Ki-67 proliferation index. These findings suggest that human growth and transformation-dependent protein expression is a common occurrence during the progression from a normal gastric mucosa to an intestinal-type carcinoma and may be associated with tumor cell proliferation activity.