Expression and clinical significance of hepatocyte nuclear factor 4αin renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To study the expression of hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α(HNF4α)in renal cell carcinoma(RCC)and its value for diagnosis and prognosis of RCC. Methods Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction(Real-time PCR) was used to detect the expression level of HNF4αm RNA in 30 cases of paired neoplastic and noncancerous renal parenchyma samples, the expression level of HNF4αprotein was tested by immunohistochemichal staining, and the expression difference of HNF4αand its relationship with RCC clinical stage and other clinicopathologic features were investigated by date analysis. Results Immunohistochemical staining showed the high expression of HNF4αprotein in normal renal tublues, but in tumor samples, normal structures of renal tublues were disorganized or dispeared, which replaced by tumor cells, and the HNF4αexpression in nucleus were lower than normal tissue in most of cases.The expression of HNF4αprotein and mRNA were essentially identical. The statistically significant decrease of HNF4αm RNA expression were detected in 22 cases of renal cell carcinoma samples(73. 3% of the total)compared to noncancerous renal samples(P< 0. 05), and obvious difference of mean level of HNF4αm RNA expression in RCC were observed in advanced stage cases compared to early stage cases(P< 0. 05), the decrease of HNF4αm RNA also correlated with RCC Fuhrman grade(P< 0. 05).In addition, the study showed no statistically significant of HNF4αm RNA reduction with gender, age, tumor site, tumor size and lymph node metastasis. Conclusion The level of HNF4αexpression is related to malignant biological behavior of RCC. The reduction of HNF4αis negative correlation with clinical stage and histological grade of RCC, the results have guiding significance for diagnosis and prognosis of RCC. Key words: Renal cell carcinoma; Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α; Clinical stage; Histological grade