ABSTRACT
To explore the significance of Erbin expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and its relation-ship with patient prognosis. Methods: Erbin expression in a tissue chip containing samples from 299 cases were examined using immu-nohistochemistry; in addition, the relationship between Erbin expression and clinical-pathological parameters and patient survival time were also analyzed. Cox regression was used to predict the risk of clinical-pathological parameters. The mRNA and protein expres-sion of Erbin was also determined in 25 cases with paired ESCC and normal tissues through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and West-ern blot. Results: The expression of Erbin protein and mRNA in ESCC were significantly higher than those of normal esophageal epithe-lium adjacent to cancer (55.2% vs. 0, P<0.05). The high expression of Erbin in ESCC was closely related to TNM stage (64.9% vs. 47.3%, P=0.002) and lymph node metastasis (65.5% vs. 45.0%, P<0.001). Moreover, the high expression of Erbin in ESCC was closely related to poor prognosis (P<0.05). Conclusions: Erbin expression was increased in ESCC and was closely related to poor patient prognosis, which suggested that Erbin may be an important biomarker for the prognosis of cancer patients.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship of ELK-3 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition ( EMT) for ex-ploring its possible mechanism .Methods The human hepatocellular carcinoma cells ( HCC) were divided into small interference RNA transfection group and Ras-ELK-3 pathway inhibitor group .The protein level of ELK-3 target gene EGR-1 E-cadherin ,vimentin and p38 in HCC were determined by Western blot analysis .Results The protein level of ELK-3 and its target gene EGR-1 in treated human hepatocellular carcinoma cells significantly decreased as compared with the negative control group (P<0.01).The protein level of E-cadherin was significantly increased (P<0.01), while vimentin and p38 were decreased in HCC cells with ELK-3 interference (P<0.01).Conclusions ELK-3 in-terference can inhibit the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of HCC cells by down-regulating p38.