Abstract:Objective To investigate the expression of aquaporin-1 (AQP1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and microvessel density (MVD) in gastric carcinoma and their clinical significance. Methods Totally 79 gastric cancer patients who were admitted into our hospital from September 1, 2015 to June 1, 2017 were involved in this study. Tumor specimens and adjacent normal tissues (> 2 cm away from the tumor) were collected. Expression of AQP1, VEGF and MVD were identified by immunohistochemistry. Correlation among AQP1, VEGF, MVD and the clinicopathological parameters were determined. Results The expression of AQP1, VEGF and MVD in gastric carcinoma tissue was increased significantly when compared with those in para-cancerous tissue (P < 0.05). AQP1, VEGF and MVD were closely correlated with tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, vascular tumor thrombosis and staging (P < 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that AQP1 was positively associated with VEGF expression (r = 0.497, P < 0.05). MVD was enhanced in VEGF positive and AQP1 positive cancer tissues compared with that in VEGF negative or AQP1 negative tissue (P < 0.05). Conclusions