Tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase 1 expression is negatively correlated with c-Met and lymph node metastasis in human lung cancer

Abstract

The present study aimed to test the expression of tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase 1 (TPST-1) in human lung cancer and to analyze the correlation with clinicopathologic features and c-Met expression levels. Expression levels of TPST-1 and c-Met were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 50 lung cancer tissues. Non-neoplastic tissues 5 cm from the cancer tissues were collected as controls. The association between TPST-1 and c-Met expression and TPST-1 and clinicopathologic parameters was then analyzed. TPST-1 was expressed in all normal tissue samples, but only in 60% of lung cancer tissues. In tumor tissues, they appeared to be significantly lower than those in matched control lung tissues. The expression of TPST-1 was significantly correlated with the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and lymph node metastasis and was significantly inversely associated with c-Met expression. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that TPST-1 expression was associated with the TNM stage and lymph node metastasis in patients with lung cancer. TPST-1 was significantly negatively correlated with the expression of c-Met in lung cancer and may be a negative prognostic biomarker of lung cancer.