Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2015; 21(27): 8418-8424
Published online Jul 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i27.8418
Downregulation of KIF1B mRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues correlates with poor prognosis
Song-Zhu Yang, Jian-Tao Wang, Wei-Wei Yu, Qing Liu, Yan-Fang Wu, Shu-Guang Chen
Song-Zhu Yang, Jian-Tao Wang, Wei-Wei Yu, Qing Liu, Yan-Fang Wu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Yantaishan Hospital, Yantai 264001, Shandong Province, China
Shu-Guang Chen, Department of Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Author contributions: Yang SZ, Wang JT, and Chen SG designed the research; Yang SZ, Wang JT, Yu WW, Liu Q, and Wu YF performed the research; Yu WW and Liu Q contributed new reagents/analytic tools; Yang SZ, Wang JT, Wu YF, and Chen SG analyzed the data; and Yang SZ, Wang JT, and Chen SG wrote the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Yantaishan Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from each patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Shu-Guang Chen, MD, Professor, Department of Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. pumchcsg@163.com
Telephone: +86-10-69155200 Fax: +86-10-69155201
Received: March 16, 2015
Peer-review started: March 17, 2015
First decision: March 26, 2015
Revised: April 11, 2015
Accepted: May 7, 2015
Article in press: May 7, 2015
Published online: July 21, 2015
Abstract

AIM: To compare kinesin family member 1B (KIF1B) expression with clinicopathologic parameters and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients.

METHODS: KIF1B protein and mRNA expression was assessed in HCC and paracarcinomatous (PC) tissues from 68 patients with HCC using Western blot and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR, respectively. Student’s t-tests were used to analyze relationships between clinicopathologic parameters and KIF1B expression, the Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze survival outcomes, and the log-rank test was used to compare survival differences between groups.

RESULTS: Mean protein and mRNA levels of KIF1B were similar between HCC and PC tissues. However, HCC tissues with vein invasions had significantly lower KIF1B protein levels compared to those without vein invasions (2.30 ± 0.82 relative units vs 2.77 ± 0.84 relative units, P < 0.05). KIF1B protein levels in HCC tissues from patients with recurrence during the follow-up period were significantly lower than those without recurrence (2.31 ± 0.92 relative units vs 2.80 ± 0.80 relative units, P < 0.05). However, KIF1B protein and mRNA expression in HCC patients was not associated with other clinicopathologic parameters. Ratios of KIF1B mRNA expression in HCC tissues to those in PC tissues were correlated with overall survival (13.5 mo vs 20.0 mo, P < 0.05) and disease-free survival (11.5 mo vs 19.5 mo, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Downregulation of KIF1B in HCC tissues is associated with poor prognosis; additional clinical studies are needed to confirm whether KIF1B can serve as a prognostic marker.

Keywords: Clinicopathologic correlation, Kinesin family member 1B, Liver cancer, Survival, Tumor progression

Core tip: Expression of kinesin family member 1B (KIF1B) protein and mRNA did not significantly differ between hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and paracarcinomatous tissues. KIF1B protein levels in HCC tissues were inversely correlated with recurrence and tumor vein invasion. Furthermore, ratios of KIF1B mRNA in HCC tissues to paracarcinomatous tissues correlated with overall survival and disease-free survival for patients with HCC. Downregulation of KIF1B mRNA in HCC tissues was associated with poor prognosis.