The significance of LRPPRC overexpression in gastric cancer

LRPPRC is a multifunctional protein involved in mitochondrial gene expression and function, cell cycle progression, and tumorigenesis. We analyzed LRPPRC gene expression in 253 paired cases of gastric cancer and noncancerous regions and six gastric cancer cell lines to demonstrate the importance of LRPPRC expression for the prediction of prognosis of gastric cancer. Our results showed that LRPPRC expression in gastric cancer tissues is significantly higher than that in paired control tissue (P < 0.001). Patients with higher LRPPRC expression showed a poorer overall survival rate than those with lower LRPPRC expression (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that lymph node metastasis (N), distant metastasis (M), TNM stage, and LRPPRC expression were independent prognostic factors for gastric cancer (P = 0.004, 0.002, 0.017, 0.004 respectively).Moreover, Western blotting showed that LRPPRC expression was increased in SGC7901, BGC823, MKN45, and XGC9811cells. The in vitro proliferation assay showed that LRPPRC expression is inversely associated with gastric cancer cells growth. Our results indicated that LRPPRC could be used as a predictive marker for patient prognosis of gastric cancer and may be a novel therapeutic target for gastric cancer in future.