Abstract
The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT (PI3K/AKT) pathway plays a critical role in human cancer. We determined the expression patterns of class I PI3K catalytic subunits and evaluated their importance in the development or progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). For this purpose, expression of class I PI3K isoforms was evaluated in 82 primary CRC and paired non-cancerous mucosa samples by qRT-PCR. P-AKT-Ser473 and P-AKT-Thr308 expression were measured by western blot. We found that, compared with paired non-cancerous mucosa samples, mRNA expression of p110α and p110β in CRCs was significantly increased to 2.02-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.25–3.28 fold) and 1.76-fold (95% CI 1.19–2.60 fold), respectively; while slight differences were found regarding the expression of p110δ (0.57-fold; 95% CI 0.31–1.07 fold) and p110γ (0.97-fold; 95% CI 0.50–1.88 fold). Increased p110α and p110β expression correlated with primary tumor size, regional lymph node metastases, and AJCC stage. Increased p110β expression also correlated with distant metastasis. P-AKT-Thr308 and P-AKT-Ser473 expression showed significant direct correlations with p110α and p110β mRNA expression. Besides, CRC patients with p110β mRNA overexpression had a worse disease-free survival after radical surgery compared with those with normal or decreased levels (P = 0.043). It was, therefore, concluded that the altered p110α and p110β expression might contribute to the CRC development or progression.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (Grant # D2007-79), NSFC(30972561), Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Science-Research Foundation and Scientific Research Fund of Heilongjiang Provincial Education Department (Grant # 11541129) for financial support.
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Binbin Cui and Ji Tao have contributed equally to this work as co-first authors.
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Cui, B., Tao, J. & Yang, Y. Studies on the Expression Patterns of Class I PI3K Catalytic Subunits and Its Prognostic Significance in Colorectal Cancer. Cell Biochem Biophys 62, 47–54 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-011-9257-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-011-9257-6