Effect of high expression of endonuclease meiotic 1 on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma
Objective To elucidate the clinical significance of high expression levels of endonuclease meiosis 1(EME1)in the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)and Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)databases were used to screen and analyze differential gene expression between HCC and non-tumor tissues.A retrospective collection of liver tissue samples from 80 HCC patients who underwent hepatectomy in the Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital between January 2010 and December 2014 was performed.Immunohistochemistry analysis was employed to detect the EME1 expression levels.Survival analysis was then conducted to assess the impact of EME1 expression on 5-year postoperative survival rate of HCC patients.Additionally,gene enrichment analysis was applied to predict the function of EME1 in HCC.Results A total of 371 HCC tissue samples and 50 non-tumor liver tissue samples from TCGA database were analyzed,revealing significantly higher EME1 expression in HCC tissues.Microarray analysis of 107 samples within the GEO database(70 HCC tissues and 37 non-tumor tissues)confirmed that EME1 mRNA expression was markedly elevated in HCC tissues compared with non-tumor tissues(P<0.05).The 5-year overall survival(OS)rate was notably lower in high EME1 expression group than that in low expression group(44.1%vs.53.0%,P<0.05).Semi-quantitative immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that patients with high EME1 expression had a significantly lower OS rate than those with low EME1 expression(32.8%vs.45.0%,P<0.05).Multivariate COX regression analysis identified that high EME1 expression(HR=2.234,95%CI 1.073-4.649,P=0.032)and advanced China liver caner(CNLC)staging(HR=4.317,95%CI 1.799-10.359,P=0.001)were independent risk factors for the 5-year OS of post-operation patients with HCC.Conclusion Elevated EME1 expression in HCC tissues correlates with an adverse prognosis of HCC and suggests that EME1 could serve as a potential therapeutic target for HCC.