[Expression of vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor in human colonic carcinoma cell membranes]

To evaluate the expression of vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor in colonic carcinoma cell membranes in men and to assess the relationship between the receptor characteristics and the histopathologic features, the authors labelled vasoactive intestinal peptide and measured vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor sites with radio-ligand bind assay on 12 specimens from colon cancer and its adjacent normal tissues. The number of the vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor sites of colon cancer was significantly smaller than that of the adjacent normal tissues (2.66 +/- 3.84 pmol/mg versus 10.54 +/- 17.99 pmol/mg, and the number of the receptor sites of colon cancer was not well related to the degrees of cancer differentiation. This study has laid the basis for the regulation of the receptor-ligand binding to inhibit the growth of colon cancer.