Expression of MMP9, SERPINE1 and miR-134 as prognostic factors in esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer (EC) is a malignant tumor with a typically poor prognosis for patients. It is well known that certain microRNA (miRNA/miR) genes can regulate other genes responsible for carcinogenesis. In the present study, a group of these genes (miR-21, miR-134, miR-205 and miR-495) and genes connected with cancer-related pathways ( MET , MMP9 , PDGFA and SERPINE1 ) were chosen for analysis in order to find a potential correlation between their expression and the clinicopathological factors of EC. Esophageal tumors and adjacent non-cancerous tissue specimens were collected from a total of 63 patients and embedded in paraffin. Commercial arrays were used on KYSE-30, KYSE-150 and KYSE-270 EC cell lines in order to find genes of different expression profiles compared with those acquired from the control Het-1A cell line. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples in order to analyze the expression of the genes chosen in the earlier step. The results were analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Kaplan-Meier methods and the long-rank test. Only miR-495 was not expressed in the analyzed samples. The expression of MMP9 and SERPINE1 was significantly coefficient with age range (P=0.011 and P=0.044, respectively) according to the Kruskal-Wallis test. The Spearman's rank-order correlation measurement showed that there was a coefficient correlation between age and miR-134 expression. The same measurement demonstrated a correlation between age range and MMP9 expression. The expression of miR-134 and MMP9 were also found to be correlated. In all cases, a value of P<0.049 was recorded. Overall, the present study demonstrated that MMP9 , SERPINE1 and miR-134 were the most prognostic genes in Caucasian patients with EC.