Zhang Botao, Feng Lin, Guo Honglin, Li Hongxia, Wang Yuanjing, Zhang Kaitai, Yu Xuexin, Cheng Shujun
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Department of Etiology and Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100021, China.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100038, China.
J Cancer. 2017 Aug 23;8(14):2793-2801. doi: 10.7150/jca.19787. eCollection 2017.
Despite many striking connections, the biological similarities between embryonic development and tumorigenesis have not been well explored. Development of the placental villi is a crucial process involving many cellular activities, including immunity, proliferation, and cell adhesion. In this study, we designed a strategy to identify the gene expression pattern of villi development and to explore the corresponding features in tumors. We discovered villi-specific genes that are highly expressed in the villus as opposed to the mature placenta and then measured the expression levels of these genes in tumors. We found large changes in the expression of villi-specific genes in multiple types of cancer. These villi-specific genes showed distinct expression patterns and were primarily involved in three biological processes: immune-related (5), proliferation-related (6), and focal adhesion-related (8); these genes were extracted from the corresponding enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms. We observed that these genes were also dysregulated at the transcriptional level across several tumor types. Moreover, the expression of these three gene groups was associated with poor prognosis in a subset of tumors. Based on villi-specific gene expression, this correlation study indicated the existence of common gene expression patterns between embryonic development and tumorigenesis. Therefore, a systematic analysis of villi-specific gene aberrations in various tumors could serve as an indicator for identifying novel prognostic biomarkers.
尽管存在许多显著的联系，但胚胎发育与肿瘤发生之间的生物学相似性尚未得到充分探索。胎盘绒毛的发育是一个关键过程，涉及许多细胞活动，包括免疫、增殖和细胞黏附。在本研究中，我们设计了一种策略来识别绒毛发育的基因表达模式，并探索肿瘤中的相应特征。我们发现了在绒毛中高度表达而在成熟胎盘中不表达的绒毛特异性基因，然后测量了这些基因在肿瘤中的表达水平。我们发现多种癌症中绒毛特异性基因的表达有很大变化。这些绒毛特异性基因表现出不同的表达模式，主要参与三个生物学过程：免疫相关（5个）、增殖相关（6个）和粘着斑相关（8个）；这些基因是从相应富集的基因本体（GO）术语中提取的。我们观察到，在几种肿瘤类型中，这些基因在转录水平上也失调。此外，这三组基因的表达与一部分肿瘤的不良预后相关。基于绒毛特异性基因表达，这项相关性研究表明胚胎发育与肿瘤发生之间存在共同的基因表达模式。因此，对各种肿瘤中绒毛特异性基因畸变的系统分析可作为识别新型预后生物标志物的指标。
