Background: Epidemiological data have revealed that colorectal cancer (CRC) risk is increased in patients with Metabolic syndrome.
Objective: To explore the expressions of IGF-1, ERK, GLUT4, IRS-1 in MS patients with CRC and their associations with the clinical characteristics of CRC.
Methods: We investigated the expressions of IGF-1, ERK, GLUT4 and IRS-1 in greater omental adipose tissues of 168 MS patients with/without CRC, 85 CRC patients without MS and 98 healthy controls by RT-PCR, and analyzed the relationships between their expressions and clinical characteristics of CRC.
Results: The expression levels of IGF-1 and ERK in MS patients with/without CRC were higher while the expression levels of GLUT4 were lower compared with CRC patients without MS and healthy controls (P< 0.01). The expression levels of IGF-1 and ERK in MS patients with CRC were higher while expression levels of GLUT4 were lower compared to MS patients without CRC (P< 0.01). Expression levels of ERK, IGF-1, GLUT4 were associated with clinical characteristics of CRC, including tumor size, distant metastasis and advanced stages (III/IV) (P< 0.05).
Conclusions: Expressions of IGF-1, ERK and GLUT4 in greater omental adipose tissues might be useful biomarkers and predictive targets in the diagnosis of CRC.
Keywords: ERK; GLUT4; IGF-1; Metabolic syndrome; colorectal cancer.