LETM1蛋白在结肠癌组织中表达及临床意义

IM: To observe the expression of LETM1(Leucine zipper/EF-hand- containingTransmembrane protein 1, LETM1) protein in colon cancer and to determine LETM1 protein that can be a valuable new tumor molecular marker for colon carcinoma. METHODS: Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of LETM1 and phosphorylation of Akt(protein kinase B, PKB/Akt) and GSK3-beta （Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3-beta, GSK3-beta）in 73 specimens of colon carcinoma. Observe disease-free survival time of colon cancer patients by Kaplan-Meier method, and Univariate analysis between groups by χ2 inspection.RESULTS: The high expression of LTEM1 protein rate is 54.8% in 73 cases of colon cancer patients. The LETM1 protein low expression and high expression rate were 27.3%/72.7%, 38.3%/61.7% and 22.7%/77.3% in the degree of invasion, differentiation and lymph node metastasis, which were statistically significant (P<0.05). However, age, sex and tumor size is not statistically significant (P>0.05). In colon cancer the high expression of LETM1 protein can activate the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase , PI-3K)/Akt signal transduction pathway. High expression LETM1 patients disease-free survival was significantly lower than LETM1 patients with low expression (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The highly-expression of LETM1 may play a role in the pathogenesis, metastasis and recurrence of colon cancer. LETM1 protein can be used as indicators to determine the prognosis of colon cancer patients provided certain basis.