Significance of Nek8 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma / 重庆医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression of Nek8 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) tissues and cell line , and to evaluate its correlation with the clinicopathological features of ESCC and the survival rate of ESCC patients after operation . Methods The expression of Nek8 mRNA in human ESCC Eca109 cell line and two pairs of ESCC tissues and adjacent normal e‐sophageal mucosal epithelium were detected by semi‐quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) .Immu‐nohistochemistry and tissue microarray technique were used to examine the expression of Nek 8 protein in ESCC tissues and tumor‐adjacent tissues .The correlation between Nek8 expression and clinicopathological features of ESCC and survival rate of ESCC pa‐tients was then analyzed .Results The expression of Nek8 mRNA was positive in Eca109 cells and two cases of ESCC tissue ,and it was negative in paired normal esophageal mucosal epithelium specimens .In tissue microarray ,the expression of Nek8 protein in ES‐CC tissues ,which was mainly in the cytoplasm ,was significantly higher than that in tumor‐adjacent tissues(P= 2 .16E‐13) .The high expression of Nek8 was associated with tumor size (P=0 .008) ,but not with sex ,age ,histological grade ,infiltration degree , lymph node metastasis ,and the survival rate(P>0 .05) .Conclusion The expression of Nek8 is up‐regulated in ESCC tissues and cell line ,and may be involved in tumorigenesis and development of ESCC .Nek8 could act as a potential biomarker for ESCC diag‐nose and target for therapy .