Low <em>PLCE1</em> levels are correlated with poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious reports show that phospholipase C epsilon-1 (PLCE1) expression is positively correlated with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and gastric cardia adenocarcinomas; however, the expression of PLCE1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its correlation with clinical outcome still remain unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the expression of PLCE1 in HCC tissue and to determine whether PLCE1 was a prognostic factor for HCC patients.Materials and methodsPLCE1 levels in 20 paired HCC tissues and corresponding paracarcinomatous tissues was investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot assays. In addition, protein levels of PLCE1 in one normal liver epithelial cell and four HCC cell lines were examined using Western blot assay. Moreover, immunohistochemistry was applied to determine the expression of PLCE1 in HCC and corresponding surrounding tissues from 90 patients. Statistical analyses were used to examine the association between PLCE1 levels and clinicopathological features.ResultsWe found that the expression of PLCE1 in tumor tissues was significantly lower than those in paracarcinomatous tissues at both mRNA and protein levels (P<0.05). We also determined that PLCE1 protein expression levels were lower in HCC cell lines than normal liver epithelial cells (P<0.05). Notably, immunohistochemical assay showed that PLCE1 expression was significantly low in HCC tissues compared with the adjacent normal liver tissues (40% vs 18.9%; P<0.05). Besides, PLCE1 levels were negatively correlated with tumor capsulae, vascular invasion, Edmondson grade, alpha-fetoprotein, and tumor-node-metastasis stage (P<0.05). Univariate analysis revealed that lower level expression of PLCE1 was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) rate (P<0.001) and disease-free survival rate (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that low PLCE1 level was an independent poor prognostic factor of OS and recurrence-free survival (P<0.001 and P=0.003, respectively).ConclusionIn brief, our results revealed that decreased PLCE1 expression was associated with tumor progression in HCC and may function as a promising biomarker for HCC prognosis.

Determination of WWOX Function in Modulating Cellular Pathways Activated by AP-2α and AP-2γ Transcription Factors in Bladder Cancer

“…THBS1 increase may inhibit angiogenesis and stimulate apoptosis during WWOX or AP-2α overexpression, contrary to AP-2γ which downregulates this gene. A similar finding applies to PLCE1 which prevents the tumor invasion [52]; it is increased during WWOX overexpression but not when AP-2γ is at a high level. Through Ca 2+ -dependent signaling, PLCE1 affects NFATC1 which further regulates SERINC5.…”

PLCE1 Polymorphisms Are Associated With Gastric Cancer Risk: The Changes in Protein Spatial Structure May Play a Potential Role

“…It interacts with the proto-oncogene Ras among other proteins ( Bunney et al, 2009 ). The expression of PLCE1 was significantly related to tumor differentiation degree, invasion depth, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis ( Cui et al, 2014b ; Cheng et al, 2017 ; Yu et al, 2020 ).…”

Oncogene PLCE1 may be a diagnostic biomarker and prognostic biomarker by influencing cell cycle, proliferation, migration, and invasion ability in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines

“…These articles show that PLCE1 is highly expressed in tumor tissues, including bladder cancer, renal cell cancer, NSCLC, and ESCC, which is consistent with our findings. However, Cheng, Xing, Jia, Huang, and Bian (2017) showed that PLCE1 expression at the mRNA and protein levels was decreased compared with non‐HCC tissues. Among these research concerning PLCE1 expression with tumors, only Nana Bian et al indicated a low expression of PLCE1 in tumors, which is not consistent with the above studies—PLCE1 is highly expressed (or overexpression) in tumors.…”