ABSTRACT
Purpose To investigate the expression and clinical significance of free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFAR4) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) . Methods The expression of FFAR4 in HCC tissues and adjacent tissues of HCC patients was confirmed by 102 cases of liver resection and postoperative pathology, and the relationship between FFAR4 expression and clinical data of HCC patients was analyzed. Quantitative realtime PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot were used to detect the expression of FFAR4 in 20 pairs of freshly frozen HCC and adjacent tissues,and the related literatures were reviewed. Results The expression rate of FFAR4 in HCC tissues was 64. 7％ (66/102) ,and that in adjacent tissues was 15. 7％ (16/102) . The difference in FFAR4 expression between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0. 05) . The high expression of FFAR4 in HCC tissues was significantly correlated with tumor vascular invasion (P < 0. 05) ,TNM stage (P < 0. 01) ,and Edmondson classification (P < 0. 05) . qRT-PCR and Western blot showed that the expression of FFAR4 in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0. 01,P< 0. 05) . Conclusion The expression of FFAR4 is significantly associated with the presence of vascular invasion,TNM staging, and Edmondson grading in HCC. High expression of FFAR4 may be closely related to the severity of HCC patients.
ABSTRACT
Purpose To detect the expression of FFAR4 protein and mRNA in pancreatic cancer and to discuss its role and significance in the progression of pancreatic cancer. Meth-ods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of FFAR4 protein in paraffin-embedded tissues from 62 cases of pathologically confirmed pancreatic cancer. The relationship be-tween the expression of FFAR4 and clinicopathological factors of pancreatic cancer was also studied. At the same time, the ex- pression of FFAR4 in 20 pairs of pancreatic cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were detected using Western bolt and real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Results The results of immu-nohistochemistry showed that the expression rate of FFAR4 pro-tein in pancreatic carcinoma was 75. 8% (47/62) significantly higher than that in paratumor tissue 40. 3% (25/62), and the difference was statistically significant (P＜0. 05). The high ex-pression of FFAR4 was related to the degree of pancreatic cancer differentiation, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis ( P ＜0. 05). Western blot and qRT-PCR showed that the expression of FFAR4 protein and its mRNA expression in pancreatic cancer tissues was significantly higher than matched paracancerous tis-sues. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups ( P ＜0. 001 ). Conclusion The dysregulated ex-pression of FFAR4 may be closely related to the progression of pancreatic cancer. It is hopeful that FFAR4 may become a new marker for the prognosis of pancreatic cancer after surgery and a new target for the study of clinical therapeutic drugs.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To identify protein markers for the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer by a comparative proteomic method.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Comparative analysis on the pancreatic peripheral blood protein profiling from 20 pancreatic cancer patients, 10 chronic pancreatitis patients and 20 cancer-free controls from May 2007 to September 2008 was carried out by two-dimensional fluorescence electrophoresis (2D-DIGE). Differentially expressed proteins were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The significance difference proteins were confirmed by Western-blot.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A differentially expressed proteins: complement 3 (C3) was identified. The gray level of C3 in pancreatic cancer tissue, chronic pancreatitis, and normal control group were 1.63 ± 0.28, 0.65 ± 0.13 (t = 11.81, P = 0.00) and 0.88 ± 0.19 (t = 9.93, P = 0.00), respectively. C3 was high expression in pancreatic cancer group compared with normal control group. The expression of C3 was higher in pancreatic cancer group than in chronic pancreatitis group. The high expression of C3 in pancreatic carcinoma was confirmed by Western blot.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>2D-DIGE and MALDI-TOF-MS technology is a quick, easy and practical method to screen for specific biomarkers in serum of patients with pancreatic carcinoma. The identified protein C3 in this study may be as specific serum biomarkers of pancreatic carcinoma.</p>