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Association of High Expression Levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 in Gastric Cancer Tumor Tissues with Progression and Poor Prognosis

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Abstract

Background

Expression of the essential regulator genes, SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4, so-called as stemness factors, is prerequisite for the tumorigenic capability of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their potential role in the formation and progression of various human cancers.

Methods

In this study, the expression levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 were quantified by a qRT-PCR method in 100 gastric cancer tumor tissues vs the paired adjacent normal tissues. Then, the relationship between the expression of the three genes in gastric cancer tumor tissues and the clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival of patients was investigated.

Results

Higher expression levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 were found in gastric cancer tumor tissues compared with those in paired adjacent normal tissues (P = 0.0001). Overexpression of the mentioned genes in gastric cancer tumor tissues was resolved to be significantly associated with tumor size (P < 0.05), TNM stage (P = 0.001), tumor grade (P < 0.01), and shortened overall survival time (P = 0.0001).

Conclusions

These findings indicted that the stemness factors SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 are significantly overexpressed in gastric cancer and may serve as potential biomarkers of gastric cancer progression and prognosis.

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Funding

This work was supported by Ilam University of Medical Sciences (942020/158) and the Cancer Institute of Iran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology and Medicinal Plants Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Gholam Basati

  2. Cancer Research Center, Cancer Institute of Iran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Hadiseh Mohammadpour

  3. Iran National Tumor Bank, Cancer Biology Research Center, Cancer Institute of Iran., Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Keshavarz Boulevard, Tehran, Iran

    Amirnader Emami Razavi

Authors
  1. Gholam Basati
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  2. Hadiseh Mohammadpour
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  3. Amirnader Emami Razavi
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Contributions

GB and AER conceived and designed the study and wrote the manuscript. HM was responsible for data collection. AER and HM performed the study and contributed the reagents/materials/analysis tools. GB analyzed the data. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amirnader Emami Razavi.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Basati, G., Mohammadpour, H. & Emami Razavi, A. Association of High Expression Levels of SOX2, NANOG, and OCT4 in Gastric Cancer Tumor Tissues with Progression and Poor Prognosis. J Gastrointest Canc 51, 41–47 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-018-00200-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-018-00200-x

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