Increased Expression of Thymosin β₄ Is Independently Correlated with Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α (HIF-1α) and Worse Clinical Outcome in Human Colorectal Cancer.
- Author:
Seung Yun LEE
1
;
Mee Ja PARK
;
Hye Kyung LEE
;
Hyun Jin SON
;
Chang Nam KIM
;
Joo Heon KIM
;
Dong Wook KANG
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Thymosin β₄; Hypoxia inducible factor-1α; Hypoxia; Immunohistochemistry; Colorectal cancer
- MeSH: Anoxia*; Cell Movement; Colorectal Neoplasms*; Humans*; Immunohistochemistry; Lymph Nodes; Multivariate Analysis; Neoplasm Metastasis; Thymosin*
- From:Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine 2017;51(1):9-16
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: BACKGROUND: Thymosin β₄ is a multi-functional hormone-like polypeptide, being involved in cell migration, angiogenesis, and tumor metastasis. This study was undertaken to clarify the clinicopathologic implications of thymosin β₄ expression in human colorectal cancers (CRCs). METHODS: We investigated tissue sections from 143 patients with CRC by immunohistochemistry. In addition, we evaluated the expression patterns and the clinico-pathological significance of thymosin β₄ expression in association with hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression in the CRC series. RESULTS: High expression of thymosin β₄ was significantly correlated with lymphovascular invasion, invasion depth, regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM stage. Patients with high expression of thymosin β₄ showed poor recurrence-free survival (p = .001) and poor overall survival (p = .005) on multivariate analysis. We also found that thymosin β4 and HIF-1α were overexpressed and that thymosin β₄ expression increased in parallel with HIF-1α expression in CRC. CONCLUSIONS: A high expression level of thymosin β₄ indicates poor clinical outcomes and may be a useful prognostic factor in CRC. Thymosin β₄ is functionally related with HIF-1α and may be a potentially valuable biomarker and possible therapeutic target for CRC.
