Abstract: ObjectiveTo study the expression of Sox2 in human prostate cancer and pericarcinomatous tissue, and the relation between its expression and the pathological type and clinical stage of prostate cancer. MethodsImmunohistochemisty, Western blot and reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) were used to detect the expression of Sox2 in 86 cases of prostate cancer tissues and 40 cases of pericarcinomatous tissues. The relation between Sox2 expression and the pathological type and clinical stage of prostate cancer was analyzed. ResultsThe expression of Sox2 in prostate cancer tissue (71.9%) was significantly higher than that in pericarcinomatous tissue (7.5%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=53.98, P<0.05).  Sox2 expression in prostate cancer tissues was significantly related to Gleason score (χ2=19.49, P<0.05). The positive rate of Sox2 in lymphatic metastasis group and negative lymphatic metastasis group was 92.3％ and 73.3％ respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=3.95, P<0.05)．While there was no significant difference among clinical stages (χ2=0.16, P>0.05). Moreover, Western blot and RTPCR revealed that the expression of Sox2 in prostate cancer tissue was significantly higher than that in pericarcinomatous tissue (t=-2.93, P<0.05; t=3.29, P<0.05). ConclusionThe high expression of Sox2 is closely related to the Gleason score and lymphatic metastasis of prostate cancer, but not to the clinical stage. The overexpression of Sox2 may play an important role in formation, differentiation and metastasis of prostate cancer.

Key words: Prostatic neoplasms, Gene expression, Sox2