Expression and significance of β-defensins in endometrial cancer and cancer cells regulated by progesterone
Objective To investigate the value of differential expression of β-defensins(DEFB)1 and DEFB4A in predicting the development of endometrial cancer(EC)and whether they are involved in proges-terone-mediated inhibition of EC.Methods Transcriptome sequencing data from 172 EC patients were utilized from the TIMER and GEPIA2 platforms to analyze the differential expression of DEFB1 and DEFB4A and survival.EC Ishikawa cells were treated with different concentrations of progesterone,and the expression of DEFB1 and DEFB4A in each concentration group was compared and analyzed.Results The expression levels of DEFB1 and DEFB4A in EC tissues were significantly higher than those in normal tissues.After approxi-mately 40 months,the survival rates between high and low expression groups of DEFB1 and DEFB4A were further differentiated.After progesterone treatment,the mRNA and protein levels of DEFB1 in the 10-6 mol/L group were significantly increased compared to the control group at 24 and 48 hours,with statistically sig-nificant differences(P<0.05).However,there was no significant change in DEFB1 expression between 24 and 48 hours in the 10-6 mol/L group,and the difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05).No sig-nificant changes were observed in DEFB4A levels across all concentration groups,and the differences were not statistically significant(P>0.05).The activity of EC Ishikawa cells under progesterone treatment was sig-nificantly negatively correlated with DEFB1 expression(P<0.05).Conclusion DEFB1 may serve as a critical factor in predicting the development of EC,indicating the risk of recurrence with progesterone therapy and po-tentially becoming a therapeutic target for EC inhibition.