Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 28, 2015; 21(48): 13473-13479
Published online Dec 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i48.13473
Correlational research of Golgi phosphorylation protein 3 expression in colorectal cancer
Yan-Ta Guo, Cheng-Zhi Qiu, Zhong-Xin Huang, Wai-Shi Yu, Xiao-Feng Yang, Ming-Zhen Wang
Yan-Ta Guo, Cheng-Zhi Qiu, Wai-Shi Yu, Xiao-Feng Yang, Ming-Zhen Wang, Department of General Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China
Zhong-Xin Huang, Department of Pathology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China
Author contributions: Guo YT and Qiu CZ designed research; Guo YT, Yu WS, Yang XF and Wang MZ performed research; Qiu CZ and Huang ZX analyzed data; all authors contributed to the preparation of the manuscript, and approved the final version to be published.
Supported by The Scientific Research Fund from the Science and Technology Bureau of Quanzhou, China, No. 2010Z33.
Institutional review board statement: All routine colorectum specimens from the patients were taken after informed consent and ethical permission were obtained for participation in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Cheng-Zhi Qiu, Department of General Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, No. 34, Zhongshan North Street, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China. qchengzhi@sohu.com
Telephone: +86-13808526258 Fax: +86-595-22793591
Received: May 2, 2015
Peer-review started: June 3, 2015
First decision: July 14, 2015
Revised: July 23, 2015
Accepted: November 9, 2015
Article in press: November 9, 2015
Published online: December 28, 2015
Processing time: 44 Days and 19.1 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the effect of Golgi phosphorylation protein 3 (GOLPH3) expression on cell apoptosis, angiogenesis and prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC).

METHODS: The expression of GOLPH3 in CRC tissues and normal colorectal mucosae was determined by immunohistochemistry in 62 patients. In addition, immunohistochemistry was also carried out to detect the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), CD34 and microvessel density (MVD). Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling assay was used to determine the apoptotic index (AI). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the relationship between GOLPH3 expression and survival in another 123 CRC cases.

RESULTS: Compared with normal colorectal mucosae, a notably higher level of GOLPH3 protein expression was identified in CRC tissues (53.2% vs 24.2%, P < 0.05). Positive GOLPH3 expression was significantly associated with tumor invasion depth, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.001; P = 0.020; P = 0.020; P < 0.05, respectively), but not with tumor length, tumor site, and age (P = 0.363; P = 0.819; P = 0.599; P > 0.05, respectively). VEGF expression and MVD in GOLPH3-positive CRC was significantly higher than in GOLPH3-negative CRC (VEGF: 69.7% vs 31.0%; MVD: 21.45 ± 9.39 vs 14.24 ± 8.97; P < 0.05). GOLPH3 expression was negatively correlated with AI in CRC as shown by Spearman correlation analysis (r = -0.320, P < 0.05). The 5-year survival rate in GOLPH3-negative CRC (69.4%) was significantly higher than in GOLPH3-positive CRC (48.6%) (log-rank test, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: High expression of GOLPH3 is found in CRC tissues. GOLPH3 expression may be a novel prognostic marker for CRC patients.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Golgi phosphorylation protein 3; Cell apoptosis; Angiogenesis; Prognosis

Core tip: Golgi phosphorylation protein 3 (GOLPH3) was identified as a Golgi membrane protein initially and as a new oncogene in recent years. This study reports a notably higher level of GOLPH3 expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues compared with normal colorectal mucosae. Positive GOLPH3 expression was significantly associated with tumor invasion depth, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis. In addition, GOLPH3 expression was correlated with cell apoptosis and angiogenesis. Our data suggest that GOLPH3 expression may be a novel prognostic marker for patients with CRC.