Department of Nuclear Medicine, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e22203. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022203. Epub 2011 Jul 12.
Testes-specific protease 50 (TSP50) is normally expressed in testes and abnormally expressed in breast cancer, but whether TSP50 is expressed in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and its clinical significance is unclear. We aimed to detect TSP50 expression in CRC, correlate it with clinicopathological factors, and assess its potential diagnostic and prognostic value.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: TSP50 mRNAs and proteins were detected in 7 CRC cell lines and 8 CRC specimens via RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Immunohistochemical analysis of TSP50, p53 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) with tissue microarrays composed of 95 CRCs, 20 colorectal adenomas and 20 normal colorectal tissues were carried out and correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and disease-specific survival for CRC patients. There was no significant correlation between the expression levels of TSP50 and p53 (P = 0.751) or CEA (P = 0.663). Abundant expression of TSP50 protein was found in CRCs (68.4%) while it was poorly expressed in colorectal adenomas and normal tissues (P<0.0001). Thus, CRCs can be distinguished from them with high specificity (92.5%) and positive predictive value (PPV, 95.6%). The survival of CRC patients with high TSP50 expression was significantly shorter than that of the patients with low TSP50 expression (P = 0.010), specifically in patients who had early-stage tumors (stage I and II; P = 0.004). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that high TSP50 expression was a statistically significant independent risk factor (hazard ratio = 2.205, 95% CI = 1.214-4.004, P = 0.009).
Our data demonstrate that TSP50 is a potential effective indicator of poor survival for CRC patients, especially for those with early-stage tumors.
睾丸特异性蛋白酶 50（TSP50）通常在睾丸中表达，在乳腺癌中异常表达，但 TSP50 是否在结直肠癌（CRC）中表达及其临床意义尚不清楚。我们旨在检测 TSP50 在 CRC 中的表达，将其与临床病理因素相关联，并评估其潜在的诊断和预后价值。
方法/主要发现：通过 RT-PCR 和 Western blot 分析检测了 7 种 CRC 细胞系和 8 种 CRC 标本中的 TSP50 mRNA 和蛋白质。使用包含 95 例 CRC、20 例结直肠腺瘤和 20 例正常结直肠组织的组织微阵列进行 TSP50、p53 和癌胚抗原（CEA）的免疫组织化学分析，并与 CRC 患者的临床病理特征和疾病特异性生存相关联。TSP50 表达水平与 p53（P = 0.751）或 CEA（P = 0.663）之间无显著相关性。TSP50 蛋白在 CRC 中表达丰富（68.4%），而在结直肠腺瘤和正常组织中表达较少（P<0.0001）。因此，CRC 可以与它们具有高特异性（92.5%）和阳性预测值（PPV，95.6%）相区分。高 TSP50 表达的 CRC 患者的生存时间明显短于低 TSP50 表达的患者（P = 0.010），特别是在早期肿瘤（I 期和 II 期；P = 0.004）的患者中。多变量 Cox 回归分析表明，高 TSP50 表达是统计学上显著的独立危险因素（危险比 = 2.205，95%CI = 1.214-4.004，P = 0.009）。
我们的数据表明，TSP50 是 CRC 患者生存不良的潜在有效指标，特别是对于早期肿瘤患者。
