Significance of expression of Myc-induced nuclear antigen 53 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship with patient prognosis

Abstract

Objective: To detect the expression of Myc-induced nuclear antigen 53 (Mina53) and liver tissue >5 cm from the edge of the tumor (LTM5), and analyze its relationship with tumorigenesis, clinicopathological characteristics, and patient survival and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The expression levels of Mina53 mRNA and protein in 18 pairs of fresh HCC and LTM5 were assessed by qRT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. The expression of Mina53 in 284 pairs of HCC and LTM5 sample was determined by immunohistochemistry. Paired-sample t-test was used for the comparison of measurement data among groups, and heterogeneity of variance was tested using Wilcoxon rank-sum test. χ (2) test was used for the comparison of measurement data among groups. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used for survival analysis. Cox regression model was used for single factor and multi factor analysis. Results: The relative expression levels of Mina53 mRNA and protein in 18 fresh HCC tissues were significantly higher than those in LTM5 tissues (mRNA: -4.41 ± 1.48 and -5.93 ± 1.65, t = 3.100, P = 0.007; protein: 1.12 ± 0.29 and 0.46 ± 0.21, t = 10.616, P < 0.001). The relative expression level of Mina53 in 284 HCC tissues was higher than that of LTM5 (z = -18.739, P < 0.001). The expression level of Mina53 was associated with tumor size (χ (2) = 5.474, P = 0.019), vascular invasion (χ (2) = 8.965, P = 0.003), pathological grade (χ (2) = 12.006, P = 0.002), and TNM stage (χ (2) = 16.686, P < 0.001). The overall postoperative survival time and disease-free survival time of patients with high expression of Mina53 (28.5 months and 22.7 months, respectively) were shorter than those with low expression (33.0 months and 31.8 months, respectively) (P < 0.05) in HCC. Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that Mina53 and multiple tumors were independent prognostic factors affecting the overall postoperative survival time and disease-free survival time of HCC patients (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Mina53 may play an important role in the occurrence of HCC and participate in the process of tumor growth as well as invasion and metastasis. The high expression of Mina53 signifies that the patient has a poor prognosis and thus can be used as a potential marker for judging the prognosis of HCC patients.