RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma (grade IV glioma/GBM) is characterized by extremely aggressive invasion and proliferative nature. OBJECTIVE: The main goal of this study was to evaluate the expression patterns of CPEB1 and CPEB4 in glioma patients. METHODS: 41 paraffin-embedded tissue samples with glioma (WHO I-IV) were collected between January 2008 and December 2012 in Tehran, Iran. MRI of patients was done before and within 24 h after surgery and gliomas investigated using quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression were applied to assess the prognosis of patients. RESULTS: The mRNA level of CPEB4 was strongly increased in tumor tissues (0.67±3.154 vs. 1.671±0.51; P=0.001). Furthermore, CPEB1 mRNA was significantly decreased in tumor tissues compared to normal tissues (2.852±0.587 vs. 1.471±0.862; P=0.025). Our findings showed that CPEB4 levels was markedly increased in patients with advanced grade gliomas (P=0.003). In addition, CPEB1 mRNA levels were not associated with clinicopathological features. Of the 41 cases, high CPEB4 expression was found in 29 patients (70.73%), while 12 cases (29.26%) showed weak expression levels, while the protein expression of CPEB4 were remarkably weak in normal tissues (P=0.001). However, no correlation was found between expression levels of CPEB1 and clinicopathological characteristics. Kaplan-Meier survival and log-rank test indicated that high expression of CPEB4 was correlated with shorter overall survival (log-rank test P<0.001). Furthermore, low expression of CPEB1 was linked to shorter overall survival (log-rank test P=0.021). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model showed that high CPEB1 (P=0.027), low CPEB4 expressions (P=0.021), and advanced tumor grade (P=0.036) were independent predictor of overall survival. CONCLUSION: Our data indicated expressions levels of CPEB4 and CPEB1 are correlated with overall survival in patients with glioma.