Department of Pathology, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Ansan-Si, Gyeonggi-Do, Republic of Korea.
Medical Science Research Center, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-Do, Republic of Korea.
PLoS One. 2020 Aug 3;15(8):e0236811. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236811. eCollection 2020.
In this study, we aimed to investigate the molecular biomarkers that are pivotal for the development and progression of gastric cancer (GC). We analyzed clinical specimens using RNA sequencing to identify the target genes. We found that the expression of HOXC6 mRNA was upregulated with the progression of cancer, which was validated by quantitative real time PCR and RNA in-situ hybridization. To compare the protein expression of HOXC6, we evaluated GC and normal gastric tissue samples using western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. We detected significantly higher levels of HOXC6 in the GC tissues than in the normal controls at both mRNA and protein levels. The expression levels of HOXC6 mRNA in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) were significantly higher than those in patients with early gastric cancer (EGC). Kaplan-Meier curves showed that high expression of HOXC6 mRNA is significantly associated with poor clinical prognosis. Our findings suggest that HOXC6 mRNA may be a novel biomarker and can be potentially valuable in predicting the prognosis of GC patients. Especially, HOXC6 mRNA in-situ hybridization may be a diagnostic tool for predicting prognosis of individual GC patients.
在这项研究中，我们旨在研究对胃癌（GC）的发展和进展至关重要的分子生物标志物。我们使用 RNA 测序分析临床标本，以鉴定靶基因。我们发现 HOXC6 mRNA 的表达随着癌症的进展而上调，这通过定量实时 PCR 和 RNA 原位杂交得到了验证。为了比较 HOXC6 的蛋白表达，我们使用 Western blot 分析和免疫组织化学评估 GC 和正常胃组织样本。我们在 mRNA 和蛋白水平上均检测到 GC 组织中 HOXC6 的表达水平明显高于正常对照组。在晚期胃癌（AGC）患者中，HOXC6 mRNA 的表达水平明显高于早期胃癌（EGC）患者。Kaplan-Meier 曲线表明，HOXC6 mRNA 的高表达与临床预后不良显著相关。我们的研究结果表明，HOXC6 mRNA 可能是一种新型的生物标志物，可潜在地用于预测 GC 患者的预后。特别是 HOXC6 mRNA 原位杂交可能是预测个别 GC 患者预后的诊断工具。
