The present study aimed to investigate the association of the invasiveness of colon cancer (CC) with the expression of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα). Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the expression of C/EBPα in the cancer and adjacent tissue samples from 48 patients with CC. A pCDGFP-C/EBPα eukaryotic expression vector was constructed， and a wound-healing assay was performed to observe the effect of transfection on the migration of SW480 cells. In addition， the expression levels of tumor invasion-associated proteins， including Kruppel-like factor 5 (KLF5)， matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)-2， MMP-9， and E-cadherin (ECD) were detected subsequent to transfection. Immunohisto... More
The present study aimed to investigate the association of the invasiveness of colon cancer (CC) with the expression of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα). Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the expression of C/EBPα in the cancer and adjacent tissue samples from 48 patients with CC. A pCDGFP-C/EBPα eukaryotic expression vector was constructed， and a wound-healing assay was performed to observe the effect of transfection on the migration of SW480 cells. In addition， the expression levels of tumor invasion-associated proteins， including Kruppel-like factor 5 (KLF5)， matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)-2， MMP-9， and E-cadherin (ECD) were detected subsequent to transfection. Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that the rate of low C/EBPα expression in normal tissue was 6.25%， whereas the rate in CC tissues was 68.75%; this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The patients with lower C/EBPα expression exhibited statistically larger tumor diameters， more advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TMN) stages and a greater likelihood of lymph node metastasis. The overexpression of C/EBPα significantly reduced the mobility of SW480 cells， and the expression of KLF5， MMP-2 and MMP-9 was reduced， whereas the expression of ECD was increased. In conclusion， C/EBPα was downregulated in CC tissue samples， and associated with the TMN stage and metastasis of CC; in addition， the overexpression of C/EBPα significantly reduced the invasiveness of CC cells. This may be significant for the diagnosis and treatment of CC in the future.
