Expression and Significance of TRIM 28 in Squamous Carcinoma of Esophagus

Bo Liu,Fengyu Li,Xiujuan Li,Junchao Liu,Fengxi Liu,Yang Lv,Shuxia Wei

doi:10.1007/s12253-018-0558-6

Abstract

Tripartite motif-containing protein 28 (TRIM28) has been proved to accelerate cell proliferation and metastasis in a variety of human cancers. However, the role of TRIM28 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. In this study, to compare the biological effect and significance of TRIM28 expression in ESCC, immunohistochemistry (streptavidin-perosidase, S-P) method was used firstly to examine the expression of TRIM28 in 136 cases of ESCC, 35 cases of high grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN), 29 cases of low grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN) and 37 cases of normal esophageal epithelium (NEE). Then the associations of TRIM28 expression with clinicopathological data and overall survival (OS) were also analyzed. Western blot was performed to evaluate TRIM28 protein in a total of 20 matched human ESCC and NEE tissues. Moreover, the localization of TRIM28 protein in ESCC and NEE tissues was also detected by immunofluorescence. TRIM28 protein was mainly distributed in the nucleus of ESCC. The expression of TRIM28 increased progressively from NEE to LGIN, to HGIN, and to ESCC, and it was also related to invasive depth, pTNM stage and lymph node metastasis in ESCC (P < 0.05). The results of western blot and immunofluorescence all showed that the relative expression of TRIM28 protein was markedly upregulated in ESCC compared with the NEE tissues (P < 0.01). However, prognostic analysis showed that TRIM28 may not be a prognostic factor of patients with ESCC. In conclusion, the overexpression of TRIM28 may play an important role for development and metastasis in ESCC.

Highlights

Esophageal carcinoma is the eighth most prevalent cancer and the seventh leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide [1]
IHC analysis showed that the frequency of Tripartite motif-containing protein 28 (TRIM28) protein expression was lowest in normal esophageal epithelium (NEE) (24.3%) and increased gradually during the evolution of esophageal carcinogenesis, with 55.9% of Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) showing high expression of TRIM28 protein (Table 1, Fig. 1)
A χ2 test showed that there was a significant difference when comparing the prevalence of TRIM28 expression in various levels of cancer progression (χ2 = 14.926, P = 0.002) (Fig. 2)

Summary

Introduction

Esophageal carcinoma is the eighth most prevalent cancer and the seventh leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide [1]. Hao L found that TRIM28 is frequently elevated in multiple tumor types and is associated with aggressive clinical features of breast cancer. In glioblastoma and liver cancer, TRIM28 is involved in a wide range of biological processes and its overexpression is associated with poor outcome in patients [12, 13]. We investigated the expression pattern of TRIM28 in ESCC, and evaluated its relationship with clinicopathological features and survival. Clinicopathologic data were obtained from pathologic reports, laboratory examination, medical records, and imaging, primarily including information of gender, age, tumor location, tumor size, histological differentiation, invasive depth, pathological TNM (pTNM) stage, lymph node metastasis, postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, as described in detail previously [14]

Material and Methods

Evaluation of Immunohistochemistry

Results

Discussion