Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Department of Pathology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Dis Markers. 2022 Mar 14;2022:5240046. doi: 10.1155/2022/5240046. eCollection 2022.
Vimentin, a cytoplasmic intermediate filament protein, has been recently identified to be a prognostic biomarker in some cancers. However, the function of vimentin in endometrial carcinoma (EC) remains unclear. Our study aimed at evaluating vimentin expression in EC and preliminarily exploring the role of vimentin in EC progression.
In total, 341 EC patients who underwent surgical follow-up were enrolled in the retrospective study. Vimentin expression levels in EC tissues were analyzed using immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the vimentin (VIM) gene expression levels in 547 samples in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were analyzed. To examine the prognostic value of vimentin in EC, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed, and a Cox model was established. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was also conducted using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database to explore the role of vimentin in EC progression.
Negative vimentin expression in EC correlated significantly with lymph node metastasis, deep myometrium invasion (MI), lymph vascular space invasion (LVSI), advanced Federation International of Gynecology and Obstetrics Association (FIGO) stages (III and IV), and high tumor grade. Vimentin negativity was more common in type 2 EC than that in type 1 EC, and vimentin-negative patients had poorer overall survival compared with vimentin-positive patients. The results of GSEA suggested that vimentin may interact with classical pathways in EC.
Negative vimentin expression correlates with tumor metastasis and worse overall survival in EC, suggesting that it may be an excellent prognostic biomarker for this disease. The mechanism by which vimentin contributes to EC progression needs to be explored in the future.
波形蛋白是一种细胞浆中间丝蛋白，最近被确定为一些癌症的预后生物标志物。然而，波形蛋白在子宫内膜癌（EC）中的作用尚不清楚。本研究旨在评估波形蛋白在 EC 中的表达，并初步探讨其在 EC 进展中的作用。
本回顾性研究共纳入 341 例接受手术随访的 EC 患者。采用免疫组织化学法分析 EC 组织中波形蛋白的表达水平。此外，还分析了癌症基因组图谱（TCGA）中 547 个样本的波形蛋白（VIM）基因表达水平。为了检验波形蛋白在 EC 中的预后价值，进行了 Kaplan-Meier 生存分析，并建立了 Cox 模型。还使用京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）数据库进行了基因集富集分析（GSEA），以探讨波形蛋白在 EC 进展中的作用。
EC 中波形蛋白的阴性表达与淋巴结转移、深肌层浸润（MI）、淋巴血管空间浸润（LVSI）、晚期国际妇产科联合会（FIGO）分期（III 和 IV 期）和高肿瘤分级显著相关。2 型 EC 中波形蛋白阴性的比例高于 1 型 EC，且波形蛋白阴性患者的总生存期明显短于阳性患者。GSEA 的结果表明，波形蛋白可能与 EC 中的经典途径相互作用。
EC 中波形蛋白的阴性表达与肿瘤转移和总生存期较差相关，提示其可能是该疾病的一个优秀预后生物标志物。波形蛋白促进 EC 进展的机制需要进一步探讨。
