Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression level of filamin A(FLNa)and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)in gastric carcinoma tissue before evaluating the correlation between the resultant level and microvascular density(MVD)and discover its clinical significance. Methods The expressions of FLNa, VEGF and CD34 in gastric carcinoma tissue and normal gastric tissues of 51 cases were examined immunohistochemically and the correlation between the expression level of those three proteins and the clinicopathologic features were analyzed too. Results The positive expressions of FLNa in gastric carcinoma tissues were lower than that in normal gastric tissues［47.06%(24/51)vs 90.20%(46/51), P=0.000］. The positive expressions of VEGF in gastric carcinoma tissues were higher than that in normal gastric tissues［92.16%(47/51)vs 31.37%(16/51), P=0.000］. The MVD values in cancer tissues was higher than that in normal tissues(18±3 vs 5±1, P=0.001). Expressions of FLNa, VEGF and MVD value were correlated with the depth of tumor invasion,lymph node metastasis, and liver metastasis, but not with patient's age, gender, lesion site of cancer, tissue types and Borrmann typing. Expressions of FLNa were negatively related with expression of VEGF in cancer tissues(r=-0.490,P=0.000). The mean MVD in group with FLNa positive was lower than in that with FLNa negative(4±1 vs 17± 3, P=0.001), while the mean MVD in group with VEGF positive was higher than in that with VEGF negative( 16±1 vs 3±1, P=0.000). Conclusion During the occurrence and development of gastric carcinoma, there is a close relationship between the expression level of FLNa, VEGF and MVD. The mechanism may be that FLNa inhibits the formation of tumor angiogenesis by cutting down the expression level of VEGF, and therefore inhibits local recurrence and distant metastasis of gastric cancer cells.

Key words: gastric neoplasm, filamin A, vascular endothelial growth factor, microvascular density, immunohistochemistry