Department of Urology, Varaždin General Hospital, Varaždin, Croatia.
Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2011 Mar;14(1):90-5. doi: 10.1038/pcan.2010.51. Epub 2010 Dec 21.
Connexins (Cxs) are a family of transmembrane proteins that build cell-to-cell channels in gap junctions. Gap junctions composed of Cxs have an essential role in intercellular communication, adhesion and cell differentiation. Several studies investigated the role of connexin43 (Cx43) in different carcinomas; however, none investigated its prognostic role in prostate cancer. Cx43 expression and relationship with established prognostic features were assessed in a cohort of 102 patients treated with radical prostatectomy for clinically localized prostate adenocarcinoma. Cx43 expression in prostate cancer was significantly associated with established features indicative of worse prognosis, such as follow-up time (P < 0.001) and preoperative PSA (P < 0.007). Patients with lower Cx43 expressions in tumours have shorter follow-up time, which indicated shorter disease-free survival and higher preoperative PSA values. Furthermore, tumours with positive surgical margins (P < 0.001) showed significantly lower Cx43 expression compared with tumours without this feature. In univariate (P < 0.001) and multivariate (P = 0.014) analyses, decreased Cx43 expression was found to be a significant predictor of biochemical recurrence free-survival. Study results show the association of decreased Cx43 expression with prostate cancer progression. Moreover, Cx43 could serve as an additional prognostic marker and used together with traditional prognostic markers might help in further stratifying the risk of disease progression in patients with prostate cancer.
间隙连接蛋白（Connexins，Cxs）是一类跨膜蛋白，它们在缝隙连接中形成细胞间通道。由 Cxs 组成的缝隙连接在细胞间通讯、黏附和细胞分化中具有重要作用。有几项研究调查了连接蛋白 43（Connexin 43，Cx43）在不同癌症中的作用；然而，没有研究调查其在前列腺癌中的预后作用。在 102 名接受根治性前列腺切除术治疗局限性前列腺腺癌的患者队列中，评估了 Cx43 的表达及其与既定预后特征的关系。前列腺癌中 Cx43 的表达与预示预后不良的既定特征显著相关，如随访时间（P < 0.001）和术前 PSA（P < 0.007）。肿瘤中 Cx43 表达较低的患者随访时间较短，这表明无病生存率较短，术前 PSA 值较高。此外，与没有这种特征的肿瘤相比，具有阳性手术切缘的肿瘤（P < 0.001）的 Cx43 表达显著降低。单因素（P < 0.001）和多因素（P = 0.014）分析显示，Cx43 表达降低是生化无复发生存的显著预测因素。研究结果表明，Cx43 表达降低与前列腺癌进展有关。此外，Cx43 可作为附加的预后标志物，与传统的预后标志物一起使用可能有助于进一步分层前列腺癌患者疾病进展的风险。
