Effects of α1-adrenergic receptor on the proliferation of cholangiocarcinoma cells

Objective To investigate the correlation between α1-adrenergic receptor and the pathological behavior of cholangiocarcinoma, and the effects of norepinephrine (NE) on the proliferation of cholangiocarcinoma cell line QBC939. Methods Thirty-six samples of cholangiocarcinoma were resected in Southwest Hospital from August 2002 to March 2008. The expression of α1-adrenergic receptor in the 36 samples of cholangiocarcinoma tissue and 4 samples of normal bile duct tissue were detected by SABC technique. The proliferation of cholangio-carcinoma cell line QBC939 was detected after processing the cells with NE, phentolamine and prazosin. All the data were analyzed by chi-square test. Results The high positive expression rate of α1-adrenergic receptor was 68% (17/25) in patients with lymph node metastasis, which was significantly higher than 9% (1/11) in patients without lymph node metastasis (χ2=10.604, P<0.05). The high positive expression rate of α1-adrenergic receptor was 85% (11/13) in patients with middle and low positioned cholangiocarcinoma, which was significantly higher than 30% (7/23) in patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma (χ2=9.753, P<0.05). NE promoted the proliferation of cholangiocarcinoma cell line QBC939 by stimulating the expression of α1-adrenergic receptor, and in a concentration-dependent manner. The proliferative effect was weakened as time passed by, and it was eliminated by phentolamine and prazosin. Conclusions The expression of α1-adrenergic receptor is diverse due to lymph node metastasis and the location of the tumor, α1-adrenergic receptor with high expression may play an important role in the proliferation and metastasis of cholangiocarcinoma.