Significance and expression of zinc finger protein 139 and matrix metalloproteinase 7 in endometrial adenocarcinoma

Objective To observe the expression of ZNF139 and MMP-7 in endometrial adenocarcinoma tissues and discuss the correlation with clinical pathological significances. Methods In 71 patients diagnosed as endometrial adenocarcinoma, 71 cancer tissues(adenocarcinoma group) and 71 adjacent normal tiuues(adjacent cancer group) were collected in operations.Immunohistochemical methods was used to detect the expression of ZNF139 and MMP-7 in the two groups, the relationship between the two genes and communication with clinicopathological indexes were discussed.Western blot and qRT-PCR were used to detected the expression of ZNF139 and MMP-7 at protein and mRNA level. Results The positive rates of ZNF139 was 66.20% in adenocarcinoma group, higher than in adjacent cancer group(21.42%, P=0.016); the positive rates of MMP-7 was 74.65% in adenocarcinoma group, higher than7 than in adjacent cancer group(26.76%, P=0.012). The expression of ZNF139 and MMP-7 was correlated with lymph node metastasis, muscle invasion and FIGO stage(P=0.028, 0.031; P=0.004, 0.016; P=0.008, 0.011). Spearman rank correlation analysis showed there was positive correlation between ZNF139 and MMP-7 in adenocarcinoma tissues(r=0.716, P=0.039). Western blot showed that ZNF139 and MMP-7 expression in adenocarcinoma group were higher than in adjacent cancer group(t=6.92, 7.34; P<0.01); qRT-PCR showed that ZNF139 mRNA and MMP-7 mRNA expression in adenocarcinoma group were higher than in adjacent cancer group(t=4.27, 4.06; P<0.05). Conclusion ZNF139 and MMP-7 are correlated with malignant pathological characteristics in endometrial adenocarcinoma, they may modulate the malignant behavior together. Key words: Endometrial adenocarcinoma; Zinc finger protein 139; Matrix metalloproteinase 7