Role of ZIC1 methylation in hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies in humans, and its prognosis is generally poor even after surgery. The zinc finger of the cerebellum (ZIC1) gene is a novel tumor suppressor gene that plays a crucial role in vertebrate development. Altered expression of ZIC1 is observed in various types of human cancers. The aims of the present study were to investigate the methylation status of ZIC1 in HCC and evaluate its clinical implication. The methylation status of ZIC1 was analyzed in 132 pairs of HCC and corresponding noncancerous tissues by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (MSP). The expression of ZIC1 messenger RNA (mRNA) in HCC tissues was examined by real-time PCR. Methylation frequency of ZIC1 in HCC was significantly higher than that in the corresponding noncancerous tissues (P?P?=?0.022), histological differentiation (P?=?0.033), and tumor stage (P?=?0.009). The downregulation of the ZIC1 mRNA expression in HCC was correlated with the ZIC1 methylation (P?P?mRNA and associated with poor survival in HCC. Overall, aberrant methylation is an important mechanism for ZIC1 inactivation in HCC, and ZIC1 methylation may be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.     

Clinical significance of RECK promoter methylation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical significance of reversion-inducing-cysteine-rich protein with Kazal motifs (RECK) promoter methylation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction was used to examine the promoter methylation status of RECK in 60 pairs of PDA tissue samples and adjacent non-cancerous tissue samples. Statistical analyses were applied to test the associations between RECK promoter methylation status, clinicopathologic factors, and prognosis. The rate of RECK promoter methylation was significantly higher in PDA tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P?<?0.001). RECK methylation status was significantly associated with clinical stage (P?=?0.017), histological differentiation (P?=?0.046), and lymph node metastasis (P?=?0.003), but was not associated with gender, age, and tumor location (all P?>?0.05). Additionally, RECK promoter methylation is associated with malignant behavior and poor prognosis. In conclusion, determination of RECK promoter methylation status in tumor tissues may assist in the identification of patients who require aggressive postoperative intervention in order to improve prognosis.     

Evaluating the expression of CARMA3 as a prognostic tumor marker in renal cell carcinoma

Increased expression of CARMA3 has been reported to be involved in tumorigenesis and tumor progression of several cancer types. The aim of our study is to investigate the prognostic role of CARMA3 expression in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Real-time quantitative PCR was performed to detect CARMA3 mRNA expression level in 31 paired samples of RCC and adjacent noncancerous renal tissues. Subsequently, extensive immunohistochemistry was performed to detect CARMA3 protein expression in 114 RCC cases. Clinicopathological data for these patients were evaluated. The prognostic significance was assessed using the Kaplan–Meier survival estimates and log-rank tests. CARMA3 mRNA expression was significantly higher in RCC tissues compared with adjacent noncancerous renal tissues (3.525?±?1.233 vs. 1.512?±?0.784, P?<?0.001). In addition, high CARMA3 expression in RCC tissues was significantly associated with tumor size (P?=?0.026), histological differentiation (P?=?0.039), tumor stage (P?=?0.006), and the presence of metastasis (P?<?0.001). Moreover, Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients with high CARMA3 expression also had a significantly poorer prognosis than those with low CARMA3 expression (log-rank test, P?<?0.001). Furthermore, multivariate analysis illustrated that CARMA3 overexpression might be an independent prognostic indicator for the survival of patients with RCC. In conclusion, this work shows that CARMA3 may serve as a novel and prognostic marker for RCC and play a role during the development and progression of the disease.     

DLC-1 is a candidate biomarker methylated and down-regulated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most aggressive malignancies in humans, and its prognosis is generally poor even after surgery. Many advances have been made to understand the pathogenesis of PDA; however, the molecular mechanisms that lead to pancreatic carcinogenesis are still not clearly understood. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between DLC-1 methylation status and clinicopathological characteristics of PDA patients and evaluate the role of DLC-1 methylation status in PDA. The expression of DLC-1 mRNA in PDA tissues was analyzed by real-time PCR. The methylation status of DLC-1 was analyzed by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP). Furthermore, we determined the prognostic importance of DLC-1 methylation status in PDA patients. Our results showed that the expression level of DLC-1 mRNA in PDA tissues was lower than that in non-cancerous tissues. The rate of DLC-1 promoter methylation was significantly higher in PDA tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (p?<?0.001). Downregulation of DLC-1 was strongly correlated with promoter methylation (P?=?0.003). The presence of DLC-1 methylation in PDA tissue samples was significantly correlated with clinical stage (P?=?0.005), histological differentiation (P?=?0.05), and lymph node metastasis (P?=?0.006). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that DLC-1 methylation status was inversely correlated with overall survival of the PDA patients. Further, Cox multivariate analysis indicated that DLC-1 methylation status was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival rate of PDA patients. In conclusion, our data suggest that downregulation of DLC-1 may be explained by DNA methylation; DLC-1 may be a biomarker for PDA.     

Overexpression of LSD1 in hepatocellular carcinoma: a latent target for the diagnosis and therapy of hepatoma

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of LSD1 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines and HCC samples. In this study, we examined LSD1 expression in 60 paired liver cancer tissues and adjacent noncancerous tissues by Western blot. In addition, we analyzed LSD1 expression in 198 HCC samples by immunohistochemistry. The relationship between LSD1 expression and clinicopathological features was investigated. The HCC cell line SMMC-7721 was transfected with LSD1 siRNA expressing plasmids. We subsequently examined in vitro cell growth using the MTT assay and anchorage-independent growth through a soft-agar colony-formation assay. In addition, the expression levels of Bcl-2 and c-Myc were also examined. Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting consistently confirmed LSD1 overexpression in HCC tissues compared with adjacent non-neoplastic tissues (P?<?0.01). Additionally, immunostaining showed more LSD1-positive cells in the higher tumor stage (T3–4) and tumor grade (G3) than in the lower tumor stage (T1–2, P?<?0.001) and tumor grade (G1–2, P?<?0.001). Knockdown of LSD1 expression in HCC cells led to decreased cell proliferation. The expression of Bcl-2 and c-Myc were down-regulated after transfection of LSD1 siRNA into HCC cell line SMMC-7721. In conclusion, because LSD1 was overexpressed in HCC and has an important role in the development of HCC, LSD1 could be a latent target in the diagnosis and therapy of HCC.     

Prognostic significance of BMP7 as an oncogene in hepatocellular carcinoma

This study aims to evaluate the association between BMP7 tissue expression and patient prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expression of BMP7 mRNA in HCC was characterized using real-time PCR and 30 pairs of fresh frozen HCC tissues and corresponding noncancerous tissues. BMP7 protein expression in HCC was confirmed using immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray chip. Finally, BMP7 expression was correlated with conventional clinicopathological features of HCC and patient outcome. The expression of BMP7 mRNA and protein in HCC cells was much higher than in normal hepatic cells. Our results showed that the high expression of BMP7 in HCC was related to tumor size (p?<?0.001), histological differentiation (p?=?0.041), serum AFP (p?=?0.007), and tumor stage (p?<?0.001). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that a high-expression level of BMP7 resulted in a significantly poor prognosis of HCC patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that BMP7 expression level was an independent prognostic parameter for the overall survival rate of HCC patients. These findings provide evidence that a high-expression level of BMP7 serves as a biomarker for poor prognosis for HCC. Thus, we speculate that BMP7 may be a potential target of antiangiogenic therapy for HCC.     

Mitotic arrest deficient-like 1 is correlated with poor prognosis in small-cell lung cancer after surgical resection

Mitotic arrest deficient-like 1 (MAD1L1) whose dysfunction is associated with chromosomal instability plays a pathogenic role in a few human cancers. However, the status of MAD1L1 expression in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains unknown. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of MAD1L1 protein in 32 lymph node metastasis (LN-M) tissues and 88 primary SCLCs compared with 32 adjacent noncancerous tissues. The associations of MAD1L1 protein expression with the clinicopathologic features and clinical outcomes in patients with SCLC were analyzed. The ratio of MAD1L1 positive expression was higher in primary SCLC tissues (39.8 %) and LN-M tissues (46.9 %) compared with adjacent noncancerous tissues (9.4 %). MAD1L1 positive expression was associated with tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (P?=?0.003), International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) stage (P?=?0.004), tumor size (P?=?0.015), lymph node metastasis (P?=?0.014), and recurrence (P?<?0.001). Multivariate analysis suggested that MAD1L1 positive expression was an independent factor for overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) 2.002; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.065–3.763; P?=?0.031) and recurrence-free survival (HR 2.263; 95 % CI 1.197–4.276; P?=?0.012). To sum up, MAD1L1 positive expression may be associated with tumour progression and metastasis in SCLCs and may thus serve as a new biomarker for prognosis in these patients.     

Expression of CHD1L in bladder cancer and its influence on prognosis and survival

Chromodomain helicase/ATPase DNA-binding protein 1-like (CHD1L) is overexpressed and highly associated with poor prognosis in many malignancies. However, the role of CHD1L in bladder cancer (BC) has not been thoroughly elucidated. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of CHD1L expression with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis in BC. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to investigate the protein expression of CHD1L in 153 BC tissues and 87 adjacent noncancerous tissues. Our data found that CHD1L protein expression was significantly higher in BC tissues than in adjacent noncancerous tissues (P?<?0.001). CHD1L overexpression was significantly correlated with histologic grade (P?=?0.005) and tumor stage (P?=?0.009). The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed that survival time of patients with high CHD1L expression was significantly shorter than that with low CHD1L expression. Multivariate analysis further demonstrated that CHD1L was an independent prognostic factor for patients with BC. In conclusion, CHD1L is likely to be a valuable marker for carcinogenesis and progression of BC. It might be used as an important diagnostic and prognostic marker for BC patients.     

肝细胞癌ASC基因启动子区甲基化及其mRNA表达研究

目的：探讨肝细胞肝癌 （HCC） ASC基因启动子区甲基化与mRNA表达及其临床病理特征的关系。方法： 运用甲基化特异性聚合酶链反应 （MSP） 和实时荧光定量PCR技术, 检测58例肝细胞癌及其相应癌旁组织、 15例肝硬化肝组织、 5例慢性病毒性肝炎肝组织和5例正常肝组织中ASC基因启动子区甲基化状态及其mRNA的表达水平。结果： 58例肝细胞癌组织中有40例（69.0%） 发生ASC基因启动子区甲基化, 其相应癌旁组织中有27例 （46.6%） 发生该基因启动子区甲基化, 而在肝硬化、 肝炎和正常肝组织中均未检测到该基因启动子区甲基化。ASC基因在肝细胞癌组织中甲基化频率高于其相应癌旁组织 （P=0.015）。ASC基因启动子区甲基化与肿瘤直径 （P=0.001）、 生长方式 （P=0.003） 以及国际抗癌联盟第6版TNM （TNM6） 分期 （P=0.001） 有关。以ASC基因在正常肝组织中的表达量为参照, 58例肝细胞癌组织中有33例出现ASC基因mRNA低表达或表达缺失, 其相应癌旁组织中有14例出现低表达或表达缺失, 而在肝硬化及肝炎肝组织中ASC基因mRNA均呈正常表达。与癌旁组织相比, 肝细胞癌组织中ASC基因mRNA表达明显下调 （P<0.05）。在发生ASC基因启动子区甲基化的40例肝细胞癌组织中有26例出现mRNA低表达。结论： ASC基因启动子区甲基化是肝细胞癌中的频发事件, 可能在肝细胞癌的进展中起重要作用。     

Increased FAT10 expression is related to poor prognosis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

It has been reported that FAT10 plays an important role in cell proliferation. Their activity is increased in malignant cells compared to benign cells. However, the clinical and functional significance of FAT10 expression has not been characterized previously in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The purpose of this study was to assess FAT10 expression and to explore its contribution to PDAC. Real-time quantitative PCR was performed to examine FAT10 expression in 38 pairs of fresh frozen PDAC tissues and corresponding noncancerous tissues. Using immunohistochemistry, we performed a retrospective study of the FAT10 expression levels on 134 archival PDAC paraffin-embedded samples. The relationship between FAT10 mRNA expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed by appropriate statistics. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlation between FAT10 expression and prognosis of PDAC patients. The relative mRNA expression of FAT10 was significantly higher in PDAC tissues than in adjacent noncancerous tissues (P?<?0.001). By immunohistochemistry, the data revealed that high FAT10 expression was significantly correlated with clinical stage (P?<?0.001), histological differentiation (P?=?0.004), and lymph node metastasis (P?=?0.013). Consistent with these results, we found that high expression of FAT10 was significantly correlated with poor survival in PDAC patients (P?<?0.001). Furthermore, Cox regression analyses showed that FAT10 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival. In conclusion, this study confirmed the overexpression of FAT10 and its association with tumor progression in PDAC. It also provided the first evidence that FAT10 expression in PDAC was an independent prognostic factor of patients, which might be a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target of PDAC.     

Expression of NEDD9 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and its clinical significance

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and prognostic significance of NEDD9 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Expressional levels of NEDD9 mRNA and protein in paired pancreatic cancer lesions and adjacent noncancerous tissues were examined by quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting. NEDD9 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 106 patients with PDA. The correlations between NEDD9 immunostaining levels and clinicopathologic factors, as well as the follow-up data of patients, were analyzed statistically. NEDD9 protein and mRNA levels were elevated in pancreatic carcinoma lesions compared with the paired adjacent noncancerous tissues. A high level of expression of NEDD9 was significantly correlated with clinical staging (P?<?0.001), lymph node metastasis (P?<?0.001), and histological differentiation (P?<?0.001). Patients with a higher NEDD9 expression had a significantly shorter survival time than those patients with lower NEDD9 expression. The multivariate analysis revealed that NEDD9 could serve as an independent factor of poor prognosis. Our finding indicates that NEDD9 could be used as prognostic molecular marker and therapeutic target for PDA.     

Expression and clinical significance of STIP1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma

The aim of this study was to detect stress-induced phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1) expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and to analyze its association with prognosis of PTC patients. Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of STIP1 in 113 PTC tissues and paired adjacent noncancerous tissues. The χ2 test was used to analyze the relationship between STIP1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. Survival curves were plotted by the Kaplan–Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Survival data was evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. We identified abnormally elevated expression of STIP1 protein in PTC tissues compared to paired adjacent noncancerous tissues. Clinicopathological analysis showed that STIP1 expression was significantly correlated with tumor size (P?=?0.017), lymph node metastasis (P?=?0.007), and TNM stage (P?=?0.026). Patients with higher STIP1 expression had shorter overall survival time, whereas those with lower STIP1 expression had longer survival time. Multivariate analysis suggested that STIP1 expression might be an independent prognostic indicator (P?<?0.05) for the survival of patients with PTC. In conclusion, our findings provide evidences that positive expression of STIP1 in PTC may be important in the acquisition of an aggressive phenotype, and it is an independent biomarker for poor prognosis of patients with PTC.     

Silencing of Hint1, a novel tumor suppressor gene,by promoter hypermethylation in hepatocellular carcinoma

The Hint1 protein, a member of the histidine triad (HIT) family, is highly conserved in diverse species and ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues. Previous studies in mice provided evidence that Hint1 may be haploinsufficient with respect to its function as a tumor suppressor. In the present study, we investigated the aberrant methylation of Hint1 and explored possible relationships between aberrant methylation and clinicopathological features in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hypermethylation of Hint1 was evaluated by the methylation specific PCR (MSP) method in 40 patients with HCC (tumor and paired adjacent non-tumor tissues) from Taiwan, 22 cases of normal liver tissue (14 from Taiwan and 8 from the US). HINT1 expression in tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry. The frequencies of hypermethylation of Hint1 in tumor, paired adjacent non-tumor and normal liver tissue were 55.0%, 37.5% and 9.1%, respectively. A statistically significant inverse association was found between Hint1 methylation status and expression of the HINT1 protein in tumor tissues (p = 0.003). The relationship between Hint1 methylation status and clinical features and other, previously measured biomarkers was also analyzed. p16 hypermethylation was statistically significantly associated with Hint1 methylation status (p = 0.035). There were no correlations between Hint1 methylation and hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV) infection status or aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁-) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-DNA adduct levels. These results suggest that promoter hypermethylation of Hint1 may play a role in hepatocarcinogenesis.     

Clinicopathological significance of SLP-2 overexpression in human gallbladder cancer

Several studies have indicated that overexpression of stomatin-like protein 2 (SLP-2) has been identified in several types of cancer. However, its role and clinical relevance in gallbladder cancer (GBC) is unknown. The purpose of this study was to reveal the prognostic significance of SLP-2 in GBC. The SLP-2 expression was examined at mRNA and protein levels by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and immunohistochemistry in GBC tissues and adjacent noncancerous tissues. Statistical analyses were applied to test the associations between SLP-2 expression, clinicopathologic factors, and prognosis. Immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR showed that the protein and mRNA expression levels of SLP-2 were both significantly higher in GBC tissues than in adjacent noncancerous tissues. In addition, immunohistochemistry analysis showed that SLP-2 expression was significantly correlated with histological grade (P <0.001), pathologic T stage (P?=?0.019), clinical stage (P?=?0.001), and lymph node metastasis (P?=?0.026). The Kaplan–Meier survival curves indicated that patients with high expression of SLP-2 had shorter overall survival than those with low expression (P <0.001). Meanwhile, the Cox multivariate analysis indicated that high expressions of SLP-2 were an independent prognostic factor for patients with GBC. These data showed that SLP-2 may play an important role in human GBC tumorigenesis, and SLP-2 might serve as a novel prognostic marker in human GBC.