Expression Levels of the YAP, TAZ, and TEAD1 Hippo Pathway Genes in Colorectal Villous Adenoma Polyps

Abstract

Background Villous adenoma polyps are mostly considered to associate with a high risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) development. Hippo signaling pathway role have been investigated in CRC by regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis, however, the role of this pathway in different adenoma polyps and its relationship to CRC development is not fully discovered yet. Methods:Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to examine the mRNA expression levels of, YAP, TAZ, TEAD1 in 30 pairs of villous adenomas polyps’ tissues, and adjacent normal tissues. In addition, the correlation between clinicopathologic features and the YAP, TAZ, and TEAD1 expression in villous adenoma polyps’ patients and ROC curve analyses were evaluated in this study. Results:The mRNA expression levels of YAP, TAZ, and TEAD were found to be overexpressed in villous adenoma polyps’ tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues (**P < 0.01, ****P <0.0001). statistical analysis showed that the expression levels of YAP, TAZ, and TEAD were associated with lymph node metastasis while only TAZ was associated with the TNM stage (I-II). Moreover, YAP, TAZ, and TEAD may have the potential to distinguish villous adenoma polyps from the adjacent normal tissues by the large area under the ROC curve (0.74, 0.70, 0.68, respectively).Conclusion:Our study highlights that the upregulation of YAP, TAZ, and TEAD genes in the Hippo pathway can affect the progression of villous adenoma polyps to CRC and can be a potential target for further investigation of a novel biomarker for patients with villous adenoma polyps.

Keywords

• villous adenoma polyps
• hippo pathway
• gene expression
• crc