Abstract
Altered expressions of mitochondria elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) have been observed in certain types of cancers, including gastric cancer cell lines, but the impact of the alterations in gastric adenocarcinoma remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of EF-Tu in gastric adenocarcinoma and to assess its clinical significance. A total of 104 paired resected gastric adenocarcinoma and corresponding normal specimens were collected in this study. EF-Tu expression was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. The correlation of EF-Tu expression and patients’ clinicopathological parameters was statically evaluated and the prognostic significance of EF-Tu expression was assessed by univariate and multivariate analyses. Forty-nine out of 104 (47.1%) gastric adenocarcinoma specimens showed high expression of EF-Tu, while the remaining 55 specimens showed weak or negative expression of EF-Tu. In contrast, EF-Tu high expression was detected in 62.5% (65 of 104) normal tissues. Down-regulation of EF-Tu was associated with serosal invasion (P = 0.042) and node involvement (P = 0.005), and down-regulation of EF-Tu was correlated with poor overall survival (P = 0.020). In curative resection (R0) patients, there were also significant differences (P = 0.043). In the multivariate analysis, the EF-Tu expression remained a significant independent prognostic factor (P = 0.038). Our results indicate that EF-Tu is expressed in both gastric adenocarcinoma and corresponding normal tissues. Down-regulation of EF-Tu expression is associated with advanced disease stage and EF-Tu expression maybe served as an independent prognostic factor.
Highlights
Gastric adenocarcinoma remains one of the most common cancers worldwide, and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in China [1]
GTP and transports the aa-tRNA to the programmed ribosome [15,16]. It can participate in other cellular processes such as organization of mitotic apparatus, developmental regulation, aging, cell morphology and transformation [17,18,19]
Both decreased and increased levels of elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) expression have been found in different human cancers, and these contradictory results led to different conclusions for the roles of EF-Tu in carcinogenesis
Summary
Gastric adenocarcinoma remains one of the most common cancers worldwide, and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in China [1]. Gastric adenocarcinoma encompasses many subtypes with distinct genetic and biological features. Identification of new biological markers to determine the risk of poor prognosis is important for designing treatment strategies [2,3]. Elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu, Tu translation elongation factor, TUFM), one of the most abundant proteins of the mitochondrial, plays a key role in the elongation process of mitochondrial protein biosynthesis [4]. The main function of the translation factor EF-Tu is to deliver aminoacyl-tRNA to the. Other functions and characteristics have been reported for EF-Tu, including its chaperone properties [5,6] and roles in signal transduction [7]. Expressions of EF-Tu have been observed in a variety of tissues with high level of expression in tissues with intrinsically active oxidative metabolism such as heart [8] and brain [9]
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