Evaluation of fatty acid synthase expression in oesophageal mucosa of patients with oesophagitis, Barrett’s oesophagus and adenocarcinoma

Background and aim To evaluate the expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS) in the oesophagitis–Barrett’s oesophagus–oesophageal adenocarcinoma sequence compared with p53 and Ki67 expressions, retained for a long time reliable markers of oesophageal cells biological behaviour. Methods In Barrett’s oesophagus, oesophagitis and oesophageal adenocarcinoma patients, biopsies were taken from pathologic sites of the mucosa for histological and immuno-histochemical detection of FAS, p53 and Ki67. FAS expression was positive, when a strong granular cytoplasmic staining was observed in oesophageal cells. Ki67 and p53 was defined positive, when nuclear staining was clearly detected at 10× magnification. Results A mild expression of FAS was found in 39% of patients with oesophagitis. The amount of FAS expression increased up to 70% in Barrett’s oesophagus while this was present in all patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma ( p = 0.0001). In Barrett’s oesophagus, p53 was mildly or intensely expressed in 77% and in 15% of cases, respectively, and mildly or intensely expressed in 33% and 67% of patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma, respectively, ( p = 0.0001). Ki67 was mildly expressed in 17% of oesophagitis cases and was absent in the majority of cases. In Barrett’s oesophagus, a mild Ki67 expression was present in 46% of cases, and in oesophageal adenocarcinoma it was present prevalently in intense form (67%; p = 0.0001). Conclusions The over-expression of p53, Ki67 and FAS in otherwise similar morphological groups may be useful to stratify patients into selected prognostic subgroups in order to achieve better clinical approaches.