Gong Hai, Han Shaorong, Yao Hui, Zhao Hui, Wang Yanming
Department of Radiation Oncology, Jinan Military General Hospital, Jinan, Shandong 250031, P.R. China.
Mol Med Rep. 2014 Jul;10(1):336-40. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2014.2209. Epub 2014 May 2.
The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor activating enhancer‑binding protein (AP)-4 has been found to be involved in tumor biology. However, the role of AP-4 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has yet to be elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the role of AP-4 expression in NSCLC. AP-4 expression as analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analyses of 42 fresh NSCLC samples and matched adjacent noncancerous tissues. Immunohistochemistry was performed to assess the clinical significance of AP-4 expression in tumor tissues of NSCLC patients (n=240) and matched adjacent noncancerous tissues. The correlation between AP-4 expression, clinicopathological features and clinical outcome were investigated. AP-4 expression was found to be increased in the NSCLC samples at the gene and protein levels compared with the matched adjacent noncancerous tissues. Immunohistochemistry revealed that the positive expression rates of AP-4 in the 240 NSCLC samples and the matched adjacent noncancerous tissues were 48.3 and 5.8%, respectively. Positive AP-4 expression was found to be significantly associated with the tumor, nodes and metastasis stage and nodal status. Furthermore, patients with NSCLC tumors expressing AP-4 were observed to have a poorer prognosis than those without AP-4 expression. Multivariate analysis revealed that AP-4 expression was an independent prognostic marker (hazard ratio, 2.543; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-5.016; P=0.016) in NSCLC. Thus, positive AP-4 expression may be a potential prognostic marker for NSCLC.
已发现基本螺旋-环-螺旋转录因子激活增强子结合蛋白（AP）-4参与肿瘤生物学过程。然而，AP-4在非小细胞肺癌（NSCLC）中的作用尚未阐明。本研究旨在探讨AP-4表达在NSCLC中的作用。采用定量聚合酶链反应和蛋白质印迹分析对42例新鲜NSCLC样本及其匹配的癌旁非肿瘤组织进行AP-4表达分析。进行免疫组织化学以评估AP-4表达在NSCLC患者（n=240）肿瘤组织及其匹配的癌旁非肿瘤组织中的临床意义。研究AP-4表达、临床病理特征与临床结局之间的相关性。结果发现，与匹配的癌旁非肿瘤组织相比，NSCLC样本中AP-4在基因和蛋白水平上的表达均增加。免疫组织化学显示，240例NSCLC样本及其匹配的癌旁非肿瘤组织中AP-4的阳性表达率分别为48.3%和5.8%。发现AP-4阳性表达与肿瘤、淋巴结转移分期及淋巴结状态显著相关。此外，观察到表达AP-4的NSCLC肿瘤患者的预后比未表达AP-4的患者差。多因素分析显示，AP-4表达是NSCLC的独立预后标志物（风险比，2.543；95%置信区间，1.18 - 5.016；P=0.016）。因此，AP-4阳性表达可能是NSCLC的潜在预后标志物。
