Objective: To investigate the expression of beta-catenin and its mRNA in renal cell carcinoma.
Methods: Twenty-six cases with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) were studied by immunohistochemistry, Western blot and RT-PCR.
Results: We found the expression of beta-catenis is higher in cancer tissues than in normal kidney tissues and the level of beta-catenin is associated with the tumor stage. Its expression in tumor of pT3 and pT4 is obviously higher than pT1 and pT2 (P < 0.01). That is to say, there was an overexpression of beta-catenin protein in RCC and its level was related to the tumor stage, but the expression of beta-catenin mRNA had no difference between tumor tissue and normal tissue.
Conclusion: beta-catenin may be related to the occurrence and progress of RCC.