title: Activin A as a novel biomarker for colorectal adenocarcinoma in humans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early diagnostics of colorectal cancer is complicated by the lack of reliable serum biomarkers. This study aimed to investigate if the serum level of activin A can be used for diagnostics of this disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study we measured the level of activin A in patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma, benign colorectal polyps, as well as in healthy subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that the level of activin A was significantly higher in patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma, as compared to patients with polyps and healthy controls. Furthermore, activin A levels correlated well with the stage of colorectal cancer. The level of activin A was substantially reduced in post-operative patients. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that high levels of activin A were present in the adenocarcinoma tissue samples but not in the non-cancerous samples. RT-PCR further confirmed that mRNA of ßA subunit of activin A is significantly over-expressed in the majority of cancerous samples. Western blotting results further demonstrated the elevated level of activin A in cancer samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, the findings suggest that colorectal adenocarcinomas directly secret activin A into the blood stream. Measuring the serum level of activin A might be used as a reliable diagnostic and screening tool in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China. you201590@sina.com.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: D X
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Z H
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D028341:Activins / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism; D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C422405:activin A; D028341:Activins