title: Expression of microtubule-associated protein TPX2 in human gastric carcinoma and its prognostic significance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of gastric carcinoma remain poorly understood. The main objective of this study was to investigate the expression level of targeting protein for Xenopus kinesin-like protein 2 (TPX2) and its clinical significance in human gastric carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting were used to determine the mRNA and protein levels of TPX2 in 20 paired gastric carcinoma tissues and the adjacent normal tissues, and the expression of TPX2 protein in 106 specimens of a gastric carcinoma tissue microarray was determined by immunohistochemistry. The associations of TPX2 expression with the clinicopathological features were analyzed, and the prognosis of gastric carcinoma patients was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the expression of TPX2 mRNA was significantly higher in gastric carcinoma than in the adjacent normal tissues in 20 paired samples. Western blotting analysis revealed that TPX2 protein was differentially increased in 17 of 20 specimens from primary human gastric carcinoma tissues compared with those from adjacent non-tumor tissues. Immunohistochemical staining showed that TPX2 over-expression was significantly associated with advanced age (P = 0.001) and tumor T stage (P = 0.003). In addition, TPX2 was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) in the multivariate analysis [hazard ratio (HR) 0.001; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.626-7.198; P = 0.001].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TPX2 is up-regulated in gastric carcinoma and is associated with old age and tumor T stage. TPX2 may serve as a good prognostic indicator in patients with gastric carcinoma.
authors: Department of Pain, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Cuijie
authors: C
authors: Shao
authors: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Changsheng
authors: C
authors: Duan
authors: Breast Cancer Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors: Jiani
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Shunlian
authors: S
authors: Luan
authors: Department of Pain, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Gao
authors: Department of Pain, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Jin
authors: Department of Pain, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Deqiang
authors: D
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Pain, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical College, Binzhou, 256600 China.
authors: Yuming
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 1 Kangda Road, Guangzhou, 510230 China.|Guangdong Key Laboratory of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong China.
authors: Lihua
authors: 0000-0002-3437-1286
authors: L
authors: Xu
keywords: Gastric carcinoma; Prognostic marker; TPX2