School of Clinical Medicine, Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu, China.
School of Life Science, Bengbu Medical University, No. 2600 Donghai Road, Bengbu, 233030, China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 18;14(1):28413. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-78127-6.
The molecular profile of paracancerous tissue has been reported to be prognostic for recurrence in patients with different cancers. This study investigated the clinical significance of the protein expression of gamma-butyrobetaine hydroxylase 1 (BBOX1) in tumor and paracancerous tissues of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. This study assessed the role of BBOX1 mRNA in tumor and paracancerous tissues in HCC via bioinformatics analysis. The protein levels of BBOX1 in paired tumor and paracancerous tissues from 83 HCC patients were determined by immunohistochemistry. The associations among BBOX1 protein levels, clinicopathological characteristics and the survival probability of HCC patients were also analyzed. The results revealed that BBOX1 mRNA expression was significantly lower in HCC tissues than in noncancerous tissues. HCC patients with low BBOX1 mRNA expression had a significantly poorer overall survival than those with high BBOX1 expression did. Immunohistochemical analysis of BBOX1 protein expression further confirmed that its levels were markedly lower in HCC tissues than in paracancerous tissues. High BBOX1 expression in paracancerous tissues correlated with poor overall survival and disease-free survival in HCC patients. These findings suggest that the paracancerous BBOX1 expression might be a credible indicator for overall survival or disease-free survival in HCC patients.
癌旁组织的分子特征已被报道与不同癌症患者的复发预后相关。本研究旨在探讨γ-丁羟酸脱水酶 1（BBOX1）在肝癌（HCC）患者肿瘤和癌旁组织中的蛋白表达的临床意义。本研究通过生物信息学分析评估了 BBOX1 在 HCC 肿瘤和癌旁组织中的作用。采用免疫组织化学法检测 83 例 HCC 患者配对肿瘤和癌旁组织中 BBOX1 的蛋白水平，并分析 BBOX1 蛋白水平与 HCC 患者临床病理特征及生存概率之间的关系。结果显示，BBOX1 在 HCC 组织中的表达明显低于癌旁组织。BBOX1 低表达的 HCC 患者总生存率显著低于高表达患者。BBOX1 蛋白表达的免疫组化分析进一步证实，BBOX1 在 HCC 组织中的表达明显低于癌旁组织。癌旁组织中 BBOX1 高表达与 HCC 患者的总生存率和无病生存率降低相关。这些发现表明，癌旁组织 BBOX1 的表达可能是 HCC 患者总生存率或无病生存率的可靠指标。
