The present study aimed to investigate the association of the invasiveness of colon cancer (CC) with the expression of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα). Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the expression of C/EBPα in the cancer and adjacent tissue samples from 48 patients with CC. A pCDGFP-C/EBPα eukaryotic expression vector was constructed, and a wound-healing assay was performed to observe the effect of transfection on the migration of SW480 cells. In addition, the expression levels of tumor invasion-associated proteins, including Kruppel-like factor 5 (KLF5), matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, and E-cadherin (ECD) were detected subsequent to transfection. Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that the rate of low C/EBPα expression in normal tissue was 6.25%, whereas the rate in CC tissues was 68.75%; this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The patients with lower C/EBPα expression exhibited statistically larger tumor diameters, more advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TMN) stages and a greater likelihood of lymph node metastasis. The overexpression of C/EBPα significantly reduced the mobility of SW480 cells, and the expression of KLF5, MMP-2 and MMP-9 was reduced, whereas the expression of ECD was increased. In conclusion, C/EBPα was downregulated in CC tissue samples, and associated with the TMN stage and metastasis of CC; in addition, the overexpression of C/EBPα significantly reduced the invasiveness of CC cells. This may be significant for the diagnosis and treatment of CC in the future.
Keywords: CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α; colon cancer; expression; invasiveness.