Jiang Jin, Liu Lu-Ying
Department of Medical Oncology, The First Hospital of Jiaxing, Jiaxing, Zhejiang 310012, P.R. China.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
Oncol Lett. 2015 Aug;10(2):810-814. doi: 10.3892/ol.2015.3353. Epub 2015 Jun 10.
Zinc finger protein X-linked (ZFX) is a zinc finger transcription factor and plays a significant role in the self-renewal ability of embryonic stem cells and various cancers. However, its expression and function in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain unclear. In the present study, we evaluated the expression of ZFX in CRC using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry (IHC), and further explored its potential functions in CRC cell lines using cell counting kit-8 and Transwell invasion assays. qPCR and western blot analysis revealed that ZFX was significantly upregulated in CRC tissues; IHC further confirmed this finding, revealing that higher expression of ZFX was significantly associated with larger tumor size (P=0.01), higher pathological stage (P=0.02), depth of invasion (P=0.047), lymph node invasion (P=0.02) and higher American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage (P=0.04). CRC patients with higher ZFX expression also exhibited significantly shorter survival times (P=0.019). Moreover, knockdown of ZFX significantly suppressed proliferation and invasion in CRC cell lines HCT116 and LoVo. These results suggest that ZFX plays a notable role in CRC tumorigenicity and may serve as a novel marker and therapeutic target for CRC.
锌指蛋白X连锁（ZFX）是一种锌指转录因子，在胚胎干细胞的自我更新能力和多种癌症中发挥着重要作用。然而，其在结直肠癌（CRC）中的表达和功能仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们使用定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）、蛋白质印迹分析和免疫组织化学（IHC）评估了ZFX在CRC中的表达，并使用细胞计数试剂盒-8和Transwell侵袭试验进一步探讨了其在CRC细胞系中的潜在功能。qPCR和蛋白质印迹分析显示，ZFX在CRC组织中显著上调；IHC进一步证实了这一发现，表明ZFX的高表达与更大的肿瘤大小（P=0.01）、更高的病理分期（P=0.02）、浸润深度（P=0.047）、淋巴结浸润（P=0.02）以及更高的美国癌症联合委员会（AJCC）分期（P=0.04）显著相关。ZFX表达较高的CRC患者的生存时间也显著缩短（P=0.019）。此外，敲低ZFX可显著抑制CRC细胞系HCT116和LoVo的增殖和侵袭。这些结果表明，ZFX在CRC的肿瘤发生中起显著作用，可能作为CRC的一种新型标志物和治疗靶点。
