GJB4 Gene Expression in Relation to Clinical and Pathological Features of Pancreatic Cancer Patients
Objective To investigate the expression of GJB4 gene in pancreatic cancer tissue and its correlation with clinicopathology.Methods The expression levels of GJB4 mRNA in pancreatic cancer and adjacent cancer tissues were analyzed using bioinformatics to analyze the Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)and Genotype-Tissue Expression(GTEx)RNA sequencing datasets.A total of 120 pancreatic cancer samples and 40 adjacent cancer samples from the Pathology Department of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University from January 2019 to December 2023 were collected and sorted.Immunohistochemistry staining method was used to detect the expression difference of GJB4 protein between the two groups.RT-qPCR method was used to detect the expression levels of GJB4 in four pancreatic cancer cell lines.Univariate and multivariate Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to analyze the clinical pathological data of GJB4 and pancreatic cancer patients.DAVID functional annotation bioinformatics and GSEA enrichment analysis were used to explore the relevant pathways of GJB4 in pancreatic cancer.Results The expression level of GJB4 mRNA in pancreatic cancer was higher than that in adjacent tissues,and the high expression of GJB4 was significantly associated with poor prognosis of patients(P<0.05).Immunohistochemical analysis showed that GJB4 protein was brown-yellow granular in pancreatic cancer tissues,mainly expressed in cytoplasm and cell membrane,and GJB4 protein expression was up-regulated in pancreatic cancer(P<0.05).The RT-qPCR test results showed that out of 4 pancreatic cancer cell lines,3 of them had upregulated expression(P<0.05).COX regression analysis showed that GJB4 gene was an independent risk factor in the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients.The results of GO enrichment analysis showed that GJB4 was related to the transmembrane transport,ion channel,signal release and membrane potential regulation of pancreatic cancer.GSEA analysis showed that GJB4 was enriched in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.Conclusion In pancreatic cancer,the high expression level of GJB4 is closely related to the clinicopathological features of the patients,which may predict the poor prognosis of the patients.GJB4 may be involved in regulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway of pancreatic cancer,and is expected to be one of the potential biomarkers of pancreatic cancer prognosis.