Expression of the stem cell self-renewal gene Hiwi and risk of tumour-related death in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma.
Self-renewal is considered as a common property of stem cells. Dysregulation of stem cell self-renewal is likely a requirement for the development of cancer. Hiwi, the human Piwi gene, encodes a protein responsible for stem cell self-renewal. In this study, we investigated the expression of Hiwi at the RNA level by real-time quantitative PCR in 65 primary soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) and ascertained its impact on prognosis for STS patients. In a multivariate Cox's proportional hazards regression model, we found that an increased expression of Hiwi mRNA is a significant negative prognostic factor for patients with STS (P=0.017; relative risk 4.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-16.1) compared to medium expression of Hiwi transcript. However, a low expression of Hiwi transcript is correlated with a 2.4-fold (CI 0.7-8.0) increased risk, but this effect was not significant (P=0.17). Altogether, high-level expression of Hiwi mRNA identifies STS patients at high risk of tumour-related death. This is the first report showing a correlation between expression of a gene involved in stem cell self-renewal and prognosis of cancer patients.
Taubert
H
H
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Pathology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany. helge.taubert@medizin.uni-halle.de
Greither
T
T
Kaushal
D
D
Würl
P
P
Bache
M
M
Bartel
F
F
Kehlen
A
A
Lautenschläger
C
C
Harris
L
L
Kraemer
K
K
Meye
A
A
Kappler
M
M
Schmidt
H
H
Holzhausen
H-J
HJ
Hauptmann
S
S
D000328:Adult; D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
D060565:Argonaute Proteins; C421088:PIWIL1 protein, human; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger