[The expressions and clinical significance of IGFBP-2, -3 in both serum and tumor tissues in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the serum levels of IGFBP-2, -3 and their proper roles in the regulation of IGF-II bioavailability in patients with ovarian tumor, and to investigate the correlation between the expressions of IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3 in ovarian tumor tissues and related clinicopathological characteristics. METHODS: Serum levels of IGFBP-2, -3 and big/mature IGF-II were measured by Western ligand blot (WLB) and Western blot (WB) in patients with ovarian tumor (10 cases of benign tumor, 6 cases of borderline tumor and 10 cases of malignant tumor) and 10 cases of normal control. The expressions of IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3 were examined in 39 specimens of ovarian tumor (8 cases of benign tumor, 8 cases of borderline tumor and 23 cases of malignant tumor) and 4 cases of normal ovarian tissues by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The serum levels of both big and mature IGF-II in epithelial ovarian cancer (ovarian cancer) patients were significantly decreased compared with those of normal control and benign and borderline tumor (P<0.001 or P<0.01). The increased serum level of IGFBP-2 and decreased IGFBP-3 level were observed in patients with malignant ovarian tumors by comparing with those of patients with normal controls, benign and borderline tumor (P<0.001 or P<0.01). The expression of IGFBP-2 was significantly higher in malignant ovarian tumor tissues than those in normal control and benign ovarian tumors tissues (P<0.0001, P<0.001, and the expression of IGFBP-3 decreased significantly in lower differentiated ovarian cancer tissues compared with that in high and moderate differentiated ovarian cancer tissues (P<0. 05). CONCLUION: IGFBP-2 predominantly presents in the circulation of malignant patients in contrast to IGFBP-3, which may result in altered bioavailability of IGF-II in ovarian cancer, leading to the progress of tumor. The serum levels of both IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3 and their expressions in tumor tissues are correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics of ovarian cancer patients. Our findings suggest that the presence of new mechanisms in the regulation of IGF-II bioavailability, and provide the evidence for the possibility to use IGFBP-2/IGFBP-3 as biological markers in diagnosis and prognosis of ovarian cancer.