Expression And Clinical Significance Of KLF4 In Gastric Cancer

Objective: KLF4 (Krüppel-like factor 4) is a zinc-finger transcriptional factor expressed in a variety types of tissues in human, and plays an important role in different physiological functions. Studies suggest that KLF4 is associated with the development and progression of various tumors. The study was to investigate the expression of KLF4 in gastric cancer and its correlation with clinicopathology.Methods: The expression of KLF4 was detected in cancer and adjacent tissues of 102 surgical specimens by immunohistochemistry. The normal gastric tissues collected simultaneously were detected too. RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of KLF4 mRNA on gastric cancer of different stages.Results: KLF4 express in cell nuclei and cytoplasm. Strong expression was detected in adjacent tissue and normal gastric mucosa (80.0%); Weak expression was detected in well differentiated gastric cancer (34.7%); Negative expression was detected in poor differentiated gastric cancer (9.7%). There is statistical significance among groups (P<0.05). The KLF4 expression in gastric cancer decreased with the progression from stage I to stage IV (P<0.05). The expression of KLF4 in groups with and without lymph node metastasis is 63.3% and 78.6%, respectively. There is statistical significance between the two groups (P<0.05).Conclusions: The expression of KLF4 decreased in gastric cancer and has correlation with gastric carcinogenesis, staging and lymph node metastasis. KLF might be the prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.