The expression and significance of dishevelled in human glioma.

Background: The proto-oncogene dishevelled (Dvl) is a critical component of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and its elevated expression in various tumor types is associated with malignancy. However, a role for Dvl in glioma has not been explored.

Materials And Methods: To determine whether Dvl expression is elevated in human glioma, we examined the protein levels in 67 human glioma samples and 3 normal brain specimens by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. To investigate a possible association of Dvl with the malignant phenotype in glioma, the correlation of the Dvl immunoreactivity score (IRS) with β-catenin IRS, the tumor proliferation index (PI), and tumor invasion index (II) were determined for each sample.

Results: The Dvl IRS, β-catenin IRS, PI, and II increased significantly with the pathologic grade of glioma (P <0.001) with average scores of 3.46 ± 3.45, 3.92 ± 3.28, 30.93 ± 17.92, and 20.43 ± 11.79, respectively. Furthermore, the PI and II were significantly higher for the Dvl-positive group than the Dvl-negative group (P <0.001). Correlation analysis demonstrated that β-catenin IRS, PI, and II were positively correlated with Dvl IRS.

Conclusions: Dvl overexpression may contribute to the malignant proliferation and invasion of human glioma.