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前立腺癌におけるvascular endothelial growth factor-Cの発現とリンパ節転移との関連：鶴崎俊文¹,神田　滋¹,酒井英樹¹,金武　洋¹,斉藤　泰¹,小路武彦²（¹長崎大・医・泌、²長崎大・医・解剖３）

Vascular endothelial growth factor-C expression in human prostatic carcinoma and its relationship to lymph node metastasis: Toshifumi TSURUSAKI¹, Shigeru KANDA¹, Hideki SAKAI¹, Hiroshi KANETAKE¹, Yutaka SAITO¹, and Takehiko KOJI² (¹Dept. of Urol., ²Dept. of Anat. III)

Lymph node dissemination is a major prognostic value in human cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying lymph node metastasis are poorly understood. Recently, vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) was identified as a specific ligand for VEGF receptor-3 (VEGFR-3/Flt-4) and the expression of VEGFR-3 was found to be highly restricted to the lymphatic endothelial cells. We investigated the expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in human prostatic carcinoma tissue by using nonradioactive in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Expression of VEGF-C mRNA in prostatic carcinoma was significantly higher in lymph node positive group than in lymph node negative group. In addition, the number of VEGFR-3-positive vessels was increased in surrounding tissue of VEGF-C-positive prostatic carcinoma. These results suggest that the expression of VEGF-C in prostatic carcinoma cells is associated with the increase in the number of lymphatic vessels, leading to lymph node metastasis.