Saito Motonobu, Goto Akiteru, Abe Noriko, Saito Katsuharu, Maeda Daichi, Ohtake Tohru, Murakami Yoshinori, Takenoshita Seiichi
Department of Organ Regulatory Surgery, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan.
Division of Genome Biology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
Oncol Lett. 2018 Feb;15(2):2401-2406. doi: 10.3892/ol.2017.7536. Epub 2017 Dec 6.
Cell adhesion molecule (CADM) genes encode immunoglobulin superfamily molecules, which are involved in cell-cell adhesion in a number of human epithelia. Through the maintenance of epithelia, CADM genes protect against malignant conversion and metastasis. Whilst numerous studies have investigated the molecular characteristics of CADM1 and CADM4 and studies have investigated CADM1 and CADM4 expression in a number of tumor types, the roles of CADM1 and CADM4 have yet to be elucidated. Therefore, in the present study, CADM1 and CADM4 expression levels were evaluated using immunohistochemistry staining in 208 patients with breast cancer and compared with clinicopathological factors. CADM1 and CADM4 expression levels were negative in 160 (76.9%) and 166 (79.8%) of the 208 cases, respectively. The lack of expression in these cases was associated with advanced tumor stage, suggesting that inactivation of CADM1 and CADM4 promotes breast cancer development. The prognostic role of CADM1 and CADM4 in breast cancer was also evaluated and the expression of CADM1 and CADM4 were not associated with cancer-specific survival or overall survival rate in the cohort of patients in the present study. Whilst these results suggested that CADM1 and CADM4 possess tumor suppressive roles, further functional experiments are required to address the important mechanisms involving CADM1 and CADM4.
细胞粘附分子（CADM）基因编码免疫球蛋白超家族分子，其参与多种人类上皮细胞间的粘附。通过维持上皮细胞，CADM基因可预防恶性转化和转移。虽然众多研究已探究了CADM1和CADM4的分子特征，且有研究调查了CADM1和CADM4在多种肿瘤类型中的表达情况，但CADM1和CADM4的作用仍有待阐明。因此，在本研究中，采用免疫组织化学染色法评估了208例乳腺癌患者的CADM1和CADM4表达水平，并与临床病理因素进行了比较。在208例病例中，分别有160例（76.9%）和166例（79.8%）的CADM1和CADM4表达水平为阴性。这些病例中表达缺失与肿瘤晚期相关，提示CADM1和CADM4的失活促进乳腺癌发展。本研究还评估了CADM1和CADM4在乳腺癌中的预后作用，且在本研究队列患者中，CADM1和CADM4的表达与癌症特异性生存率或总生存率无关。虽然这些结果提示CADM1和CADM4具有肿瘤抑制作用，但仍需要进一步的功能实验来阐明涉及CADM1和CADM4的重要机制。
