However, over expression of Cx26 might the acquisition of malignant phenotypes and is correlated with metastasis, tumor grade and prognosis in several carcinomas [12–14]. Therefore, this study examined the correlation between Cx26 expression by immunohistochemistry in colorectal carcinoma and clinicopathological features and P53 expression as a tumor suppressor gene. Materials and methods This study evaluated
153 patients with colorectal carcinoma who underwent a curative resection at the Department of Surgical Oncology (First Department of Surgery) of Osaka City University Graduate School Barasertib in vitro of Medicine (Osaka, Japan). The age of the patients ranged 30 from 84 years (mean 65.5 years); and there were 87 males and 66 females were included. All of them underwent a curative resection and were followed for at least 5 years after surgery. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides were reviewed and the diagnoses were confirmed. Tumor staging was defined according to the criteria for histological classification proposed by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). Patients were informed of the investigational nature of the study and each provided written informed consent check details prior to recruitment. Resected specimens from these patients were fixed in a 10% formaldehyde solution and embedded in paraffin. Four micrometer thick sections were cut and mounted
on glass slides. Immunohistochemical method Cx26 and P53 immunostaining were performed by the streptavidin-biotin method. As primary antibodies, mouse monoclonal anti-Cx26 (Zymed Laboratories, San Francisco, CA, working dilution 1:500) and mouse monoclonal PIK3C2G P53 antibodies (DAKO, Carpinteria, CA, ready to use) were used. The sections were cut (4 μm), dried for 4 h at 58˚C, and then dewaxed in xylene and dehydrated through an ethanol series. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked by incubation with 0.3% H2O2 in methanol for 30 min at room temperature. Thereafter, the sections were autoclaved for 10 min at 121˚C in 10 mM sodium citrate (pH 6.0). The sections were washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and incubated with 10% normal rabbit serum for 10 min to reduce non-specific
staining. The specimens were incubated with the respective primary antibodies in a moist chamber overnight at 4°C. The specimens were washed with PBS and incubated in a secondary antibody for 10 min at room temperature. The sections were washed three times in PBS and incubated with the streptavidin-peroxidase reagent for 5 min at room temperature. Finally, the sections were incubated for 5 min in PBS containing diaminobenzidine and 1% hydrogen peroxide (Histofine SAB-PO kit, Nichirei), followed by counterstaining with Mayer’s hematoxylin. As the negative control, incubation with the primary antibody was omitted. Moreover, we investigated the apoptotic cells by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling (TUNEL) staining, using an In Situ Apoptosis Detection Kit (MK-500; Takara bio Co.