Immunohistochemical Expression of SGLT2 in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive neoplasm. Sodium-glucose transport protein 2 (SGLT2) is a sodium-dependent glucose transporter involved in glucose reabsorption from the kidney. This provides the energy required for the viability of the cells. In this study, we aim to determine the expression of SGLT2 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in various histological grades and tumor stages of PDAC.

This retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care center and included 41 cases of PDAC. The study duration was 18 months. The paraffin blocks were obtained from archives and histopathologically processed. IHC was done using rabbit polyclonal anti-SGLT2 antibody.

Males were more frequently affected (n=34; 82.93%) as compared to females (n=7; 17.07%); 43.9% (n=18) of the cases were aged >50 years; 70.73% (n=29) of the cases were histologically graded as moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma; 73.17% (n=30) of the cases revealed a positive history of impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes mellitus; this was found to be significantly associated with the histological grade of PDAC (p=0.0053); 65.85% (n=27) of the cases were staged as pT2; 58.54% (n=24) of the cases showed a moderate expression of SGLT2, while 9.76% (n=4) of the cases showed a strong expression. A statistically significant association was found between histological grade and SGLT2 immunoexpression (p=0.0001). A significant association was also found between SGLT2 immunoexpression and pT (tumors) stage (p=0.0002).

SGLT2 immunoexpression is significantly associated with the histological grade and tumor stage of PDAC. Hence, we suggest that SGLT2 inhibition can be a potential therapeutic strategy in moderate to advanced PDAC.