Periostin, a stroma-associated protein, correlates with tumor invasiveness and progression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Recently, the tumor microenvironment is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in cancer proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. To screen stroma-associated proteins involved in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) carcinogenesis, laser capture microdissection (LCM) and quantitative proteomic analysis were employed to assess different protein expression of the stroma between NPC and normal nasopharyngeal mucosa (NNM). In this study, periostin was identified to be significantly up-regulated in NPC stroma compared with NNM stroma and the result was further confirmed by Western blotting. Immunohistochemistry showed that over-expression of periostin was frequently observed in the stroma of NPC and matched lymph node metastases (LNM) compared with the stroma of NNM. Statistical analysis showed over-expression of periostin was significantly associated with advanced clinical stage (P < 0.001) and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001) and decreased overall survival (P < 0.001) in NPC. Cox regression analysis indicated over-expression of periostin was an independent prognostic factor. Furthermore, ectopic expression of periostin was used to examine its effect on invasiveness of NPC cell in vitro and the result showed that periostin was able to promote invasiveness of NPC cell. In conclusion, periostin expression is correlated with tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and patient survival. Periostin is a potential biomarker for the differentiation and prognosis of NPC, and it might play an important role in the progression of NPC.

Proteomic analysis of stromal proteins in different stages of colorectal cancer establishes Tenascin-C as a stromal biomarker for colorectal cancer metastasis

“…LCM was used to purify the stroma from NNCM, ACP, CCIS and ICC tissue, respectively, according to our previous procedure [40, 41]. Homogeneous (>95%) was determined by microscopic visualization of the captured cells (Supplementary Figure S1).…”

High levels of periostin correlate with increased fracture rate, diffuse MRI pattern, abnormal bone remodeling and advanced disease stage in patients with newly diagnosed symptomatic multiple myeloma

“…Periostin has a major role in carcinogenesis and tumor progression in a number of malignancies besides its role in bone metabolism. It augments lymph angiogenesis in head and neck cancer, significantly influencing the stage of the tumor, 22 whereas high expression of periostin correlates with poor prognosis in osteosarcoma. 12 Similarly, increased periostin expression is seen in nearly one-third of breast carcinomas.…”

Periostin in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Pathobiological insights and clinical implications

“…Consistent with its potential as a prognostic factor for predicting overall patient survival outcomes for patients with various malignant neoplasms, clinicopathological studies have revealed Postn overexpression to correlate with tumor invasiveness and metastatic growth in a variety of human carcinomas, including breast, prostate, and ovarian carcinomas [11, 64, 65], nasopharyngeal carcinoma [66] esophageal carcinoma [67], PDAC [54], hepatocellular carcinoma [53], and colon carcinoma [35]. In the cases of human ICC analyzed by Utispan et al .…”