Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2021 November, 255(3)

Tac2-N Promotes Glioma Proliferation and Indicates Poor Clinical Outcomes

Yingfei Dou,¹ Hankun Xu,² Xiaoqian Wu¹ and Pei Liu³

¹Department of Cardiology, Yidu Central Hospital of Weifang, Weifang, Shandong, China
²Department of Neurology, Qingzhou People’s Hospital, Qingzhou, Shandong, China
³Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Qilu Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

As the most common tumor of central nervous system in adults, glioma is characterized with poor prognosis. Tac2-N (TC2N) is a newly discovered protein that play potential roles in lung cancer and breast cancer progression. Here we aimed to investigate the expression, clinical significance, and function of TC2N in glioma. The mRNA level of TC2N in glioma patients was extracted from TCGA datasets. Immunohistochemistry staining was conducted to test protein expression of TC2N in glioma tissues. Chi-square test was used to assess correlations between TC2N expression and patients’ clinicopathological characteristics. Kaplan-Meier method was used to plot survival curves. The prognostic predictive role of TC2N was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Knockdown assays were performed in U87 and U251 cell lines, respectively. Cell proliferation, colony formation, and subcutaneous mice xenografts were used to reveal the tumor-related role of TC2N in glioma. Compared with normal brain tissues, the mRNA level of TC2N was significantly higher in glioma tissues, whose dysregulated higher mRNA level was correlated with poorer overall survival. Similarly, higher protein expression of TC2N was observed in cases with larger tumor size and advanced WHO grades. Univariate and multivariate analyses identified TC2N as a novel independent prognostic factor of gliomas. In vitro and in vivo data demonstrated that TC2N interference can remarkably prevent glioma cell proliferation and tumor growth. In conclusion, high TC2N expression is significantly correlated with poor overall survival of glioma patients via enhancing tumor growth.

Keywords —— glioma; prognosis; proliferation; TC2N

© 2021 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med 2021, 255, 247-256.

Correspondence: Pei Liu, Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Qilu Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, 107 Wenhua Xi　Road, Jinan, Shandong 250012, China.

e-mail: li7520887@163.com or liupei_peiliu@126.com