Clinical Significance of GCNT3 in colorectal cancer

• Main Authors: LIU Shanxi, YE Jun, SHANG Yangyang, CHEN Haoyuan, WANG Rongquan
• Format: Article
• Language: zho
• Published: Editorial Office of Journal of Third Military Medical University 2019-05-01
• Series: Di-san junyi daxue xuebao
• Subjects: colorectal cancer; cancer genome atlas database; gcnt3 gene; disease-free survival
• Online Access: http://aammt.tmmu.edu.cn/Upload/rhtml/201812043.htm

Objective To investigate the expression level of GCNT3, a glycosyltransferase enzyme, in colorectal cancer (CRC) and its association with the prognosis of the patients. Methods The mRNA expression data of GCNT3 gene (encoding mucin-type core 2 synthase enzyme, C2GnT-2) and clinical information of the patients were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). The correlation of GCNT3 mRNA expression level with the clinical characteristics of the patients was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis were used for assessing the prognostic value of GCNT3. We also tested the effect of a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting GCNT3 on the proliferation of the colorectal cancer cell line HT-29 using MTT assay. Results GCNT3 mRNA expression level was significantly decreased in CRC tissues as compared with the paired adjacent colorectal tissues (P < 0.001). A low expression level of GCNT3 was significantly correlated with a reduced disease-free survival (DFS) rate in the patients with CRC (P < 0.05). In HT-29 cells, interference of C2GnT-2 with the specific shRNA significantly promoted the cell proliferation as compared with the control cells (P < 0.01). Conclusion The expression of GCNT3 is significantly downregulated in CRC tissues, and a low expression of GCNT3 can be indicative of a low disease-free survival rate of patients with CRC.