Glutathione system to characterize the biological aggressiveness of the gastric cancer.
e15512 Background: The aim was a comparative study of glutathione system of tumor and its peritumoral tissues at gastric signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) and gastric adenocarcinoma (AC) to identify pathogenetic features of malignancy. Methods: Content of reduced glutathione (GSH) and the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione transferase (GST) were determined in the samples of tumor and peritumoral tissues, obtained during the surgery in 21 primary patients: 13 patients with SRCC, 8 patients with AC (G2-G3) without preoperative therapy. Tissue of intact stomach was studied in 12 randomly bereaved. Results: In the AC tumor tissue the GSH level was decreased by 43% and the activity of GPx and the GST was increased by 121.7% and 44.3% (p < 0.05–p < 0.001) compared with intact stomach. In peritumoral tissue both the level of GSH and GPX activity were less than in the tumor tissue at 40-45% (p < 0.05–p < 0.01). In SRCC both the GSH level and the activity of GPx and GST were increased in tumor tissue by 78%, 93.6% and 49.5% (p < 0.05–p < 0.001) compared with the intact stomach. In peritumoral tissue the GSH level was lower than in the tumor tissue by 60.2% (p < 0.01), the enzymes activity was unchanged remaining higher than in the intact stomach. The GSH level both in tumor and in peritumoral tissues was 2-3 folds higher in gastric SRCC than in AC. No significant differences in the activity of glutathione-dependent enzymes in tumors of different histotype were revealed. Conclusions: The results show the differences in the functioning of the glutathione system, depending on the histological type of gastric tumors. It is possible that greater activity of glutathione-dependent system in tissue of SRCC is needed to maintain its increased proliferative activity and determines the features of the biological behavior of this tumor histotype.