Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 17, 2026
Application of AlDeSense to Stratify Ovarian Cancer Cells Based on Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1A1 Activity
Published on: March 31, 2023
Nuclear aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 (ALDH1A1) expression is a favorable prognostic indicator in colorectal carcinoma
Lili Wang1, Dongliang Lin2, Ying Fu3
1Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, China; Key Laboratory of Disease Proteomics of Zhejiang Province, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, China.
Aim:
To assess the expression pattern of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 (ALDH1A1) in the normal-adenoma-primary carcinoma-liver metastasis sequence, and investigate its association with clinicopathological features and outcomes.
Methods:
Immunohistochemistry for ALDH1A1 was performed on two cohorts. One used tissue microarrays (TMAs) of 395 primary colorectal carcinomas, and the other used whole-tissue sections from 217 adenomas, 265 primary carcinomas, and 72 liver metastatic carcinomas. Both the epithelial and stromal expression of ALDH1A1 were evaluated. Both cytoplasmic and nuclear expression were assessed in epithelial cells.
Results:
In the TMA and whole-tissue cohorts, univariate analysis indicated that the cytoplasmic expression of ALDH1A1 cannot be considered as a prognosis marker of CRCs. In the whole-tissue cohort, nuclear expression was found in a small subgroup of CRC patients. Here, both univariate and multivariate analysis showed that nuclear expression was significantly associated with longer disease-specific survival. In addition, we found that nuclear expression in low-grade adenoma was predominant over high-grade adenoma, primary CRC and the correpsonding liver metastasis.
Conclusions:
Whole-tissue is better than TMA for the detection of ALDH1A1 nuclear staining in CRC patients, and nuclear expression is associated with a better outcome. Cytoplasmic expression is not a suitable prognostic marker of CRC.
