Positive immunostaining of Sal-like protein 4 is associated with poor patient survival outcome in the large and undifferentiated Korean hepatocellular carcinoma

PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown the role of Sal-like protein 4 (SALL4) as a biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and some studies have shown the relationship between SALL4 and prognosis. Given the debates in study groups differences in terms of etiologic causes between Western and Asian HCC and detection methods, we attempted to verify the features of SALL4 immunoreactivity and its clinical correlation in Korean HCC patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of SALL4 of tissue microarrays (TMAs) consisting of 213 surgically resected HCC patients' tissue were scored in a semiquantitative scoring system with immunoreactive score and the results analyzed with clinical outcome, in addition to general demographics and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: SALL4 immunoreactivity was expressed in 50 cases. Relevance between SALL4 and α-FP correlated significantly (P = 0.002). Also, the SALL4-positive patients had considerably higher tumor grade (P < 0.001). The survival analysis showed negative correlation with SALL4 immunoreactivity in all HCC patient groups, but SALL4 immunoreactivity in T3 and T4 HCC correlated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: Here, we found that positive immunostaining of SALL4 is correlated with poor patient survival outcome in large and undifferentiated Korean HCC. SALL4 expression showed close relationship with clinical outcomes of HCCs in Korean patients.

Positive immunostaining of Sal-like protein 4 is associated with poor patient survival outcome in the large and undifferentiated Korean hepatocellular carcinoma

PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown the role of Sal-like protein 4 (SALL4) as a biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and some studies have shown the relationship between SALL4 and prognosis. Given the debates in study groups differences in terms of etiologic causes between Western and Asian HCC and detection methods, we attempted to verify the features of SALL4 immunoreactivity and its clinical correlation in Korean HCC patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of SALL4 of tissue microarrays (TMAs) consisting of 213 surgically resected HCC patients' tissue were scored in a semiquantitative scoring system with immunoreactive score and the results analyzed with clinical outcome, in addition to general demographics and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: SALL4 immunoreactivity was expressed in 50 cases. Relevance between SALL4 and α-FP correlated significantly (P = 0.002). Also, the SALL4-positive patients had considerably higher tumor grade (P < 0.001). The survival analysis showed negative correlation with SALL4 immunoreactivity in all HCC patient groups, but SALL4 immunoreactivity in T3 and T4 HCC correlated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: Here, we found that positive immunostaining of SALL4 is correlated with poor patient survival outcome in large and undifferentiated Korean HCC. SALL4 expression showed close relationship with clinical outcomes of HCCs in Korean patients.

Knockdown of SALL4 expression regulates cell proliferation and apoptosis in prostate cancer LNCaP cells / 中国病理生理杂志

[ ABSTRACT] AIM: To investigate the SALL4 expression, proliferation and apoptosis in the LNCaP cells after transfection of SALL4 siRNA.METHODS: The expression of SALL4 at mRNA and protein levels was detected by real-time PCR and Western blotting.MTS assay, colony formation assay and flow cytometry were used to determine the prolifer-ation, colony formation ability and apoptosis of the LNCaP cells.The effect of SALL4 on the expression of Bax and Bcl-2 was analyzed by Western blotting.RESULTS:Compared with negative control group, the expression of SALL4 at mRNA and protein levels in LNCaP cells was down-regulated by transfection of SALL4 siRNA ( P<0.05 ) .The proliferation rate and colony formation ability were decreased, while apoptosis rate increased in si-SALL4 group (P<0.05).Higher expres-sion of Bax and lower expression of Bcl-2 in si-SALL4 group were observed ( P<0.05 ) .CONCLUSION:Down-regula-tion of SALL4 by siRNA not only suppresses LNCaP cell proliferation and colony formation, but also inhibits Bcl-2 expres-sion and activates Bax expression to induce apoptosis.