HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

From Cell Biology to Tissue Engineering

 

Nephronectin is a prognostic biomarker and promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion

Di Mei1,2, Bochao Zhao1, Jiale Zhang1, Huimian Xu1 and Baojun Huang1

1Department of Surgical Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang and 2Department of General Surgery, Huludao Center Hospital, Huludao, PR China

Offprint requests to: Baojun Huang, Department of Surgical Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, No.155 Nanjing North Street, Heping District, Shenyang 110001, PR China. e-mail: bjhuang@cmu.edu.cn


Summary. Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant disease with high incidence and mortality rates worldwide. Nephronectin (NPNT) was found to be dysregulated in some kinds of cancer. The goal of our study was to explore the expression profile of NPNT based on large numbers of GC samples with detailed clinico-pathological and prognostic data from our institution and the data from a public database. A total of 117 GC samples and 73 corresponding non-tumorous adjacent tissues (NATs) were obtained from GC patients and used to detect expression of NPNT through immunohisto-chemistry. Western blot and qRT-PCR were performed to examine expression of NPNT in GC cell lines. Our results found that the positive expression ratio of NPNT in GC tissues is significantly higher than that in NATs (p<0.001). Chi-squared analysis results showed positive expression ratio of NPNT was significantly associated with depth of tumor invasion (p=0.049) and TNM stage (p=0.017). Kaplan-Meier survival and cox analysis results showed that patients with positive NPNT protein expression tend to have poorer prognosis than those with negative NPNT expression (p=0.0032) and NPNT expression was independent prognostic factor. High expression level was seen in GC cell lines. Furthermore, through a series of cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration associated experiments, we found that NPNT could evidently promote GC cell proliferation, invasion and migration, as well as epithelial-mesenthymal transition. In summary, NPNT was evidently overexpressed in GC and had an oncogenic role. In the future, NPNT could serve as a promising therapeutic target for treating GC patients. Histol Histopathol 35, 1263-1274 (2020)

Key words: Gastric cancer, Immunohistochemistry, Nephronectin, Prognosis, Proliferation, Invasion

DOI: 10.14670/HH-18-260