High expression levels of CLEC4M indicate poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Luo,Liuping; Chen,Lihong; Ke,Kun; Zhao,Bixing; Wang,Lili; Zhang,Cuilin; Wang,Fei; Liao,Naishun; Zheng,Xiaoyuan; Liu,Xiaolong; Wang,Yingchao; Liu,Jingfeng

doi:10.3892/ol.2020.11294

High expression levels of CLEC4M indicate poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Authors:
- Liuping Luo
- Lihong Chen
- Kun Ke
- Bixing Zhao
- Lili Wang
- Cuilin Zhang
- Fei Wang
- Naishun Liao
- Xiaoyuan Zheng
- Xiaolong Liu
- Yingchao Wang
- Jingfeng Liu
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Affiliations: The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350005, P.R. China, The United Innovation of Mengchao Hepatobiliary Technology Key Laboratory of Fujian Province, Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350025, P.R. China, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian 350001, P.R. China
Published online on: January 13, 2020 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2020.11294
Pages: 1711-1720
Copyright: © Luo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

The identifcation of novel and accurate biomarkers is important to improve the prognosis of patients with hepa‑tocellular carcinoma (HCC). C‑Type lectin domain family 4 member M (CLEC4M) is involved in the progression of numerous cancer types. However, the clinical significance of CLEC4M in HCC is yet to be elucidated. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the involvement of CLEC4M in HCC progression. The expression level of CLEC4M was determined in tumor, and their corresponding adjacent non‑tumor tissues derived from 88 patients with HCC, using immunohistochemistry, western blot and reverse transcrip‑tion‑quantitative PCR. The correlation between CLEC4M expression and certain clinicopathological characteristics was retrospectively analyzed. The results suggested that CLEC4M was specifically labeled in sinusoidal endothelial cells, in both HCC and non‑tumor tissues. Moreover, the expression of CLEC4M in tumor tissues was signifcantly lower than that in non‑tumor tissues (P<0.0001), which indicated its potential as a biomarker of the development of HCC. Subsequently, corre‑lation analysis suggested that the relatively higher CLEC4M expression in HCC tissues was signifcantly associated with increased microvascular invasion (P=0.008), larger tumor size (P=0.018), absence of tumor encapsulation (P<0.0001) and lower tumor differentiation (P=0.019). Notably, patients with high CLEC4M expression levels in their tumor tissues experienced more frequent recurrence and shorter overall survival (OS) times compared with the low‑expression group. Furthermore, CLEC4M expression in tumor tissues was identifed as an independent and signifcant risk factor for recurrence‑free survival and OS. The results of the present study suggest that CLEC4M may be a valuable biomarker for the prognosis of the patients with HCC, postoperatively.

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