Aberrant upregulation of 14-3-3σ and EZH2 expression serves as an inferior prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 16;9(9):e107251. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107251. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy in the world. It is of important significance to find biomarkers for the prognostic monitoring of HCC. The 14-3-3σ and EZH2 proteins are involved in cell cycle regulation and epigenetic silencing. We herein examined the significance of 14-3-3 σ and EZH2 in HCC (n = 167) by immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR and qRT-PCR. The correlation between 14-3-3σ and EZH2 expression and patients' clinicopathologic features were examined, as was the correlation between 14-3-3σ and EZH2 expression and the prognosis of HCC patients. We found that 14-3-3σ and EZH2 were highly expressed in HCC (71% and 90%), the expression of EZH2, but not 14-3-3σ, is associated with vascular invasion and tumor differentiation (p<0.01). The coexistence of 14-3-3σ and EZH2 overexpression is associated with a relatively unfavorable prognosis (p<0.01), suggesting that aberrant upregulation of 14-3-3σ and EZH2 expression serves as an inferior prognostic biomarker for HCC.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • 14-3-3 Proteins / genetics*
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / genetics*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / mortality*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / pathology
  • Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Protein
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Humans
  • Liver / metabolism
  • Liver Cirrhosis / genetics
  • Liver Cirrhosis / metabolism
  • Liver Cirrhosis / pathology
  • Liver Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Liver Neoplasms / mortality*
  • Liver Neoplasms / pathology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Grading
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 / genetics*
  • Prognosis
  • ROC Curve
  • Tumor Burden
  • Up-Regulation

Substances

  • 14-3-3 Proteins
  • Biomarkers
  • EZH2 protein, human
  • Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Protein
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 2

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81360367), Science and technology research projects focused on universities in Guangxi (2013ZD046), Guangxi Health Department self-funded project, and the National Natural Science Foundation of Hunan province (08JJ5009) (Z2013464). The funders participated in study design, data collection and analysis.