Nup88 Expression in Normal Mucosa, Adenoma, Primary Adenocarcinoma and Lymph Node Metastasis in the Colorectum

Abstract

Objectives: It was the aim of this study to investigate Nup88 expression in normal colorectal mucosa, adenoma, adenocarcinoma and lymph node metastasis, as well as the relationship between Nup88 expression and clinicopathological features. Methods: Nup88 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in 84 normal mucosa samples, 32 adenomas, 181 primary adenocarcinomas, and 18 lymph node metastases from colorectal tumour patients. Results: Nup88 expression was observed in normal epithelial and tumour cells. The frequency of strong Nup88 expression was increased from normal mucosa or adenoma to primary tumour and lymph node metastasis (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in the expression between normal mucosa and adenoma (p = 0.41). The frequency of strong Nup88 expression was higher in ulcerated tumours (40%) than in polypoid/large fungating tumours (23%; p = 0.048). The frequency of strong Nup88 expression was significantly different among tumours with good (21%), moderate (42%) and poor differentiation (48%; p = 0.01). Nup88 expression was not related to the patients’ gender, age, tumour location, size, histological type, invasive depth, lymph node status and Dukes stage (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Our results suggest that Nup88 may play a role during the development, aggressiveness and differentiation of colorectal tumours.

Therapeutic Targeting of Nuclear Protein Import in Pathological Cell Conditions

“…Up-regulation of the Nup214/Nup88 complex has been observed during the development of leukemia (Shu et al, 2008). Nup88 was overexpressed in a series of tumor cell lines and primary human solid tumors (Gould et al, 2002;Agudo et al, 2004;Zhang et al, 2007;Shu et al, 2008). The fusion of Nups prevents them from being incorporated into the NPC, thus retaining them in the THERAPEUTIC TARGETING OF NUCLEAR PROTEIN IMPORT IN DISEASE cytoplasm, and impairing their binding to transport receptors (Kau et al, 2004;Faustino et al, 2007a).…”

Increased serum level of Nup88 protein is associated with the development of colorectal cancer

“…Nup88 has been shown in previous studies to be overexpressed in a wide variety of malignancies including gastroenteric carcinomas [3][4][5]. In our previous studies on tissues from CRC patients, Nup88 protein determined by immunohistochemistry was overexpressed in the primary tumor and lymph node metastasis of CRC compared to the normal colorectal mucosa, and the strong expression of Nup88 predicted a worse outcome in the patients [6][7]. The level of Nup88 was highly correlated with the aggressiveness of breast cancer [8].…”

The nuclear envelope environment and its cancer connections

“…Collectively, these studies indicate that, when considering lamin expression, deviation from the norm, rather than an increase or a decrease, could be used as a marker of nuclear envelope deregulation. However, overexpression of a distinct marker of the nuclear envelope, NUP88, consistently correlates with an aggressive tumour phenotype and poor prognosis in numerous cancers 128,129,131,132,148 .…”