Expression and Clinical Significance of ACTA2 in Osteosarcoma Tissue

Objective: To investigate the expression of alpha–smooth muscle actin (ACTA2) in osteosarcoma tissues and itsrelationship with prognosis. Methods: Prognostic analysis of lung metastasis–related genes in osteosarcoma usingthe TCGA database. Single-cell sequencing detected the expression of ACTA2 in 11 osteosarcoma tissues. Paraf-fin-embedded tissues of 74 osteosarcoma patients treated at the Sixth People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiao TongUniversity from 2014 to 2019 were collected, and tissue microarrays were prepared. ACTA2 expression wasdetected and scored by immunohistochemistry. According to the median value of the ACTA2 histochemicalscore, 74 patients were divided into two groups, the high-expression group and low-expression group, and therelationship of expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis was analyzed by Cox regression.Results: Through analysis of ACTA2 expression by single-cell sequencing of osteosarcoma samples together withan immuno-microarray, we found moderate ACTA2 expression. Upon analyzing the prognostic impact ofACTA2, CCL2, TGFBI, VEGFA, PDGFB, PDGFC, COL1A1, COL14A1, CXCL12, CXCL14, CSPP1, LUM,DES, MYL9, and SFRP2 on osteosarcoma patients using the TCGA database, we found that patients with highACTA2 expression had a significantly better prognosis than those with low ACTA2 expression. Patients with highexpression of ACTA2 in osteosarcoma lung metastases showed longer progression-free survival and overall survival than those with low expression. Conclusion: High expression of ACTA2 in patients with osteosarcoma lungmetastasis suggests a better prognosis.