Department of Pulmonary, Anhui Geriatric Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Mol Biol Rep. 2012 Jan;39(1):259-67. doi: 10.1007/s11033-011-0734-1. Epub 2011 May 10.
Autophagy, a conversed response to stress, has recently been studied in human cancers. Two important autophagic genes-Beclin-1 and LC3 are reported in several human cancers. However, the expressions of Beclin-1 and LC3 in lung cancer have not yet been investigated. In the present study, we investigated the expression of Beclin-1 and LC3, and the relationship between the expression profile and the clinical or pathological changes in human lung cancer. 40 primary lung cancer patients are involved in present study. mRNA expressions of Beclin-1 and LC3-II were detected by Real Time PCR and the protein levels were assessed by immunohistochemistry and western blot. Relative lower expressions of Beclin-1 and LC3-II mRNA were found in the lung cancer tissues compared to counterpart normal tissues. Consistently, the lower amount of Beclin-1 and LC3-II protein was found in lung cancer tissues. However, the expressions of Beclin-1 and LC3-II in lung cancer tissues were not affected by patients' age, gender, smoking, histological type, lymph node metastasis and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage. Both mRNA and protein levels of Beclin-1 and LC3-II were significantly decreased in lung cancer tissues which suggested that autophagy may be involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer.
自噬是一种对压力的代偿反应，最近在人类癌症中得到了研究。有两个重要的自噬基因-Beclin-1 和 LC3 在几种人类癌症中被报道。然而，Beclin-1 和 LC3 在肺癌中的表达尚未被研究。在本研究中，我们研究了 Beclin-1 和 LC3 的表达，以及其表达谱与人类肺癌临床或病理变化之间的关系。本研究共纳入 40 例原发性肺癌患者。通过实时 PCR 检测 Beclin-1 和 LC3-II 的 mRNA 表达，通过免疫组化和 Western blot 评估蛋白水平。与配对的正常组织相比，肺癌组织中 Beclin-1 和 LC3-II mRNA 的表达水平较低。一致地，在肺癌组织中发现 Beclin-1 和 LC3-II 蛋白的量较低。然而，Beclin-1 和 LC3-II 在肺癌组织中的表达不受患者年龄、性别、吸烟、组织学类型、淋巴结转移和肿瘤-淋巴结-转移（TNM）分期的影响。Beclin-1 和 LC3-II 的 mRNA 和蛋白水平在肺癌组织中均显著降低，这表明自噬可能参与了肺癌的发病机制。
