Increased levels of SLP-2 correlate with poor prognosis in gastric cancer.
BACKGROUND
Stomatin-like protein 2 (SLP-2) is a member of the highly conserved stomatin protein family whose homologues span from Archaea to humans and include stomatin, SLP-1, and SLP-3. Several studies have indicated that overexpression of SLP-2 is strongly associated with adhesion and migration in several human cancers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate SLP-2 expression at the mRNA and protein level in patients with gastric cancer (GC) and to examine the relationships between SLP-2 expression, clinicopathological features, and prognosis.


METHODS
We investigated SLP-2 expression in primary GC and paired normal gastric tissue by real-time PCR (RT-PCR; n = 16) and Western blot analysis (n = 32). Additionally, we performed immunohistochemistry (IHC) on 113 paraffin-embedded GC specimens, 30 matched normal specimens, and 30 paired metastatic lymph node samples.


RESULTS
SLP-2 is overexpressed in GC compared with the adjacent normal gastric epithelium (p < 0.001), and high-level SLP-2 expression is significantly correlated with the depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage. Furthermore, elevated SLP-2 expression is an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model (p = 0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
Overexpression of SLP-2 may contribute to the progression and poor prognosis of GC.
Department of General Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, No. 1838, The North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong, China, liudongning198224@yahoo.com.cn.
Dongning
D
Liu
Lei
L
Zhang
Zhiyong
Z
Shen
Fei
F
Tan
Yanfeng
Y
Hu
Jiang
J
Yu
Guoxin
G
Li
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011379:Prognosis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001798:Blood Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C406287:STOML2 protein, human