TGFB1-TGF-β/Smad信号在甲状腺乳头状癌侵袭相关表型中的表达特征OA

Objective To investigate the expression characteristics of TGFB1-TGF-β/Smad signaling in papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC).Methods Cancer tissues and paired adjacent non-cancerous tissues were collected from 31 patients with PTC.The expression level of TGFB1 mRNA was detected using real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(qPCR),and the overall expression of TGF-β1 protein was evaluated by Western blot.The tissue localization and expression intensity of TGF-β1 and its downstream molecule p-Smad2/3 were quantitatively analyzed by immunohistochemistry combined with QuPath software.Samples were stratified into extrathyroidal extension(ETE)and lymph node metastasis(LNM)groups according to the postoperative pathological results,and comparisons were conducted both within and between stratified groups based on the paired cancer tissue and adjacent non-cancerous tissue.Results The qPCR results indicated that the expression of TGFB1 mRNA in PTC cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in the paired adjacent tissues(P<0.05),and this difference was consistently observed within ETE and LNM subgroups,whereas no significant differences were found between stratified subgroups(No-ETE vs ETE and N0 vs N1)(P>0.05).Western blot analysis showed no statistically significant difference in the overall expression level of TGF-β1 protein between the cancer and adjacent tissues(P>0.05),suggesting a discrepancy between the protein expression and mRNA level.The immunohistochemical results revealed that TGF-β1 was mainly localized in the cytoplasm of cancer cells and was significantly elevated in cancer tissues compared with adjacent tissues(P<0.05),with a similar trend within each of the ETE and LNM subgroups.p-Smad2/3 showed a significantly enhanced nuclear localization in cancer tissues,indicating that the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway was activated at the tumor level.Further subgroup analysis revealed that the enhanced nuclear localization of p-Smad2/3 was more pronounced in the No-ETE subgroup and showed a similar trend in the N0 subgroup,while in the ETE and N1 subgroups,this difference tended to weaken or become unstable;there was no statistically significant difference between the subgroups(P>0.05).Conclusions The transcriptional level of TGFB1 in PTC tissues is elevated,and the expression of TGF-β1 is enhanced.The nuclear localization status of p-Smad2/3 shows differential changes in different invasion-related stratifications,suggesting that the TGF-β/Smad signaling may have stage-related regulatory characteristics during the invasion process of PTC.