Systems Biology and Medicine Center for Complex Diseases, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.
Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.
Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2019;162:213-227. doi: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2018.12.011. Epub 2019 Mar 6.
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was first identified as colon cancer antigen in 1965. The higher serum CEA level than that of healthy individuals led to its clinical application as a diagnostic biomarker for colorectal cancer. Subsequent molecular biology studies revealed that CEA are glycoproteins from a family of 32 genes and are normally expressed in various tissues. Indeed, serum CEA levels are not only increased in colorectal cancer but also increased in other types of cancers and noncancer diseases. However, a systematic comparison of the serum CEA levels in different diseases has not been reported. In current study, serum CEA levels from 70,993 patients with 49 clinically defined diseases were retrieved in the clinical laboratory of Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University over the past 5 years. In addition, serum CEA levels from 39,650 individuals who attended their annual physical examination were used as healthy controls. Based on the mean, median, and -Logp values, we found that patients suffering from 42 diseases had significantly increased serum CEA levels than that of healthy controls. Moreover, patients with lung fibrosis, pancreatic cancer, uremia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, colon cancer, Alzheimer's disease, rectum cancer, and lung cancer had highest media levels of serum CEA in a descending order. Furthermore, healthy individuals older than 65 years old ranked 24th out of 49 in the media levels of serum CEA. In summary, the increased serum CEA levels are associated with aging, cancers, and noncancer diseases and the molecular mechanisms behind the increased serum CEA levels in the 42 unrelated diseases need to be investigated.
癌胚抗原（CEA）于 1965 年首次被鉴定为结肠癌抗原。其血清水平高于健康个体，导致其作为结直肠癌的诊断生物标志物在临床上得到应用。随后的分子生物学研究表明，CEA 是来自 32 个基因家族的糖蛋白，在各种组织中正常表达。事实上，血清 CEA 水平不仅在结直肠癌中增加，而且在其他类型的癌症和非癌症疾病中也增加。然而，不同疾病的血清 CEA 水平的系统比较尚未报道。在本研究中，从过去 5 年青岛大学附属医院临床检验科的 70993 例临床定义明确的疾病患者中检索了血清 CEA 水平，此外，从 39650 例参加年度体检的个体中提取了血清 CEA 水平作为健康对照。基于平均值、中位数和-logp 值，我们发现 42 种疾病的患者血清 CEA 水平明显高于健康对照组。此外，肺纤维化、胰腺癌、尿毒症、慢性阻塞性肺疾病、结肠癌、阿尔茨海默病、直肠癌和肺癌患者的血清 CEA 中位数水平依次降低。此外，65 岁以上的健康个体在 49 个个体的血清 CEA 中位数水平中排名第 24 位。总之，血清 CEA 水平的升高与衰老、癌症和非癌症疾病有关，需要对 42 种不相关疾病中血清 CEA 水平升高的分子机制进行研究。
