Expression of heparanase-2 in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and its effect on invasion and migration of gastric cancer cells

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of heparanase-2 (HPSE2) in gastric cancer tissues, and explore its effect on the survival and prognosis of the cancer and invasion and migration of the cancer cells. Methods Immunohistochemical staining of HPSE2 was performed on gastric cancer tissue chip to examine the expression level of HPSE2 in gastric cancer and paracancerous tissues. The correlation of HPSE2 expression level with clinical features, survival, prognosis and prognostic factors were analyzed. The lentival vectors of HPSE2 overexpression were constructed, and then transfected in gastric cancer cell lines SGC7901 and MKN28. The effect of HPSE2 overexpression on invasion and migration of gastric cancer cells were detected using Transwell analysis. Results The mean pathological score of HPSE2 was 4.56 in gastric cancer tissue, and 7.18 in paracancer tissues, showing that the expression was significantly lower in gastric cancer than paracancer tissues (P < 0.05). The expression level of HPSE2 was closely correlated with the tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and clinical staging. The patients with higher HPSE2 expression had obviously shorter median survival time and cumulative survival rate than those with lower expression (P < 0.05). Cox proportional risk model showed that clinical stage, tumor size and HPSE2 protein expression were risk factors for prognosis of gastric cancer patients (P < 0.05). Overexpression of HPSE2 could remarkably inhibit the invasion and migration of gastric cancer cells. Conclusion HPSE2 is lowly expressed in gastric cancer tissues, and is associated with the tumor size, lymph node metastasis, survival and prognosis of gastric cancer. Overexpression of HPSE2 could inhibit the invasion and migration of gastric cancer cells.

Keywords

• heparanase-2
• gastric cancer
• migration
• invasion