ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of endoglin (ENG) in human non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines, cancer and adjacent non-cancer tissues, and its role in NSCLC development, progression, metastasis and recurrence. METHODS: Five strains of NSCLC cells and one strain of normal human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells were cultured in vitro. Human NSCLC tissues and their corresponding adjacent lung tissues were taken from 22 NSCLC cases to detect the mRNA and protein levels of ENG using real-time PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Chi-square test was performed to analyze the correlations between the ENG expression and clinical data. RESULTS: The mRNA and protein levels of ENG were up-regulated in 3 NSCLC cell strains of high metastasis. However, the expression of ENG was missing in the other low-metastatic NSCLC cell strains and the HBE cell strain. Besides, the mRNA and protein levels of ENG were up-regulated in the 19 out of 22 lung cancer tissues (86.36%), which were significantly higher than those in the adjacent non-cancer tissues (P<0.01). The over-expression of ENG was significantly correlated positively with lymph node metastasis (P<0.01), but not with age, sex, tumor size, clinical stage, pathological grade or histopathological type. CONCLUSION: The expression of ENG in NSCLC is significantly correlated positively with lymph node metastasis, and it might be a biomarker for the metastasis and prognosis of NSCLC.
Subject(s)
Antigens, CD/genetics , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/genetics , Gene Expression , Lung Neoplasms/genetics , Receptors, Cell Surface/genetics , Adult , Aged , Antigens, CD/metabolism , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/metabolism , Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/pathology , Cell Line , Endoglin , Female , Humans , Lung Neoplasms/metabolism , Lung Neoplasms/pathology , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasm Grading , Neoplasm Staging , Receptors, Cell Surface/metabolismABSTRACT
Global genomic hypomethylation is a hallmark of cancer in humans. In the present study, the feasibility of measuring hypomethylation of Alu elements (Alu) in serum and its clinical utility were investigated. Tumor tissues and matched serum specimens from 65 glioma patients and serum samples from 30 healthy controls were examined for Alu hypomethylation by bisulfite sequencing. The median serum Alu methylation level was 47.30 % in patients (interquartile range (IQR), 35.40-54.25 %) and 57.90 % in the controls (IQR, 55.25-61.45 %). The median Alu methylation level in tumor samples was 40.30 % (IQR, 36.80-54.20 %), which shows the correlation of Alu hypomethylation between tumor and serum samples (r = 0.882) in the study group. The methylation level was higher in the low-grade glioma group than in the high-grade group both in tumor and serum samples. A correlation between high methylation level and longer survival time was detected in tumor and serum samples. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve for diagnosis was 0.861 (95 % confidence interval, 0.789-0.933), suggesting that Alu hypomethylation in serum may be of diagnostic value. Our results indicate that the detection of Alu hypomethylation in serum may be clinically useful for the diagnosis and prognosis of glioma.
