Expression and Clinical Utility of Transcription Factors Involved in Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition during Thyroid Cancer Progression

Journal of Clinical Medicine

卷:10

Alessandro Antonelli¹  Poupak Fallahi¹  Simona Censi²  Caterina Mian²  Susy Barollo²  Corrado De Vito³  Stefano Arcieri⁴  Piergaspare Palumbo⁴  Salvatore Ulisse⁴  Eleonora Lori⁴  Enke Baldini⁴  Filippo Maria Di Matteo⁴  Domenico Tripodi⁴  Salvatore Sorrenti⁴  Domenico Mascagni⁴  Danilo Tarroni⁴  Daniele Pironi⁴  Alessandro Maturo⁴  Chiara Tuccilli⁴  Iulia Catalina Ferent⁴  Giorgio Palazzini⁴  Massimo Vergine⁴  Francesco Tartaglia⁴  Antonio Catania⁴  Vito D’Andrea⁴  Aldo Morrone⁵  Matteo D’Armiento⁵ 

[1] Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy;

[2] Department of Medicine, University of Padua, 35128 Padua, Italy;

[3] Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy;

[4] Department of Surgical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy;

[5] Scientific Direction, IRCCS San Gallicano Dermatological Institute, 00144 Rome, Italy;

关键词: thyroid cancers;    epithelial–mesenchymal transition;    transcription factors;    Twist1;    Snail;    Zeb;   

DOI  :  10.3390/jcm10184076

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The transcription factors involved in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT-TFs) silence the genes expressed in epithelial cells (e.g., E-cadherin) while inducing those typical of mesenchymal cells (e.g., vimentin). The core set of EMT-TFs comprises Zeb1, Zeb2, Snail1, Snail2, and Twist1. To date, information concerning their expression profile and clinical utility during thyroid cancer (TC) progression is still incomplete. We evaluated the EMT-TF, E-cadherin, and vimentin mRNA levels in 95 papillary TC (PTC) and 12 anaplastic TC (ATC) tissues and correlated them with patients’ clinicopathological parameters. Afterwards, we corroborated our findings by analyzing the data provided by a case study of the TGCA network. Compared with normal tissues, the expression of E-cadherin was found reduced in PTC and more strongly in ATC, while the vimentin expression did not vary. Among the EMT-TFs analyzed, Twist1 seems to exert a prominent role in EMT, being significantly associated with a number of PTC high-risk clinicopathological features and upregulated in ATC. Nonetheless, in the multivariate analysis, none of the EMT-TFs displayed a prognostic value. These data suggest that TC progression is characterized by an incomplete EMT and that Twist1 may represent a valuable therapeutic target warranting further investigation for the treatment of more aggressive thyroid cancers.

【 授权许可】

Unknown