The clinical and biological significance of MICA in clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients.
Major histocompatibility complex class I-related chains A (MICA), a ligand of Natural killer group 2, member D (NKG2D) receptor, is broadly upregulated in epithelial originated tumor cells. MICA plays a critical role in the immune surveillance against tumor cells and is associated with the prognosis of several malignancies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical and biological significance of MICA in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). The expression of MICA was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Both MICA mRNA and protein levels were upregulated in ccRCC tissues, compared with normal tissues. IHC staining revealed a homogenous pattern of MICA staining within each tumor, which combined both membrane staining and granular cytoplasmic staining. Furthermore, high MICA expression was associated with lymph node metastasis and advanced clinical stage and predicted poor prognosis in patients with ccRCC. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed using RNA-sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network (TCGA) to elucidate the biological role of MICA in ccRCC and revealed that MICA was significantly associated with the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) gene set, which was further confirmed by qRT-PCR. Our findings contribute to the studies on biomarkers of kidney cancers and the mechanism of renal cancer progression driven by EMT pathway.
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Xiang
X
Zhang
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Lei
L
Yan
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Wei
W
Jiao
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Juchao
J
Ren
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Naidong
N
Xing
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Yongzhen
Y
Zhang
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China.
Yuanwei
Y
Zang
Central Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, 247 Beiyuan Street, Jinan, 250033, China.
Jue
J
Wang
Department of Urology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, 107 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, 250012, China. xuzhonghuamd@aliyun.com.
Zhonghua
Z
Xu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015854:Up-Regulation
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; C099187:MHC class I-related chain A
EMT; MICA; NKG2D; Prognosis; Renal cell carcinoma