Objective: Neuropilin-1 has been reported to be a valuable diagnostic biomarker in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and early cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between Neuropilin-1 and the prognosis of cervical cancer in Henan Chinese population.
Methods: Tissues were collected in The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University between 2010 and 2012, determining the level and expression of Neuropilin-1 in different cervical lesions by immunohistochemistry. The cell proliferation assay, wound-healing assays and Transwell assay were performed to explore the ability of proliferation, migration and invasion for Hela and Caski cells after NRP-1 was knocked down by shRNA transfection. Western blotting was performed to investigate the role of NRP-1 in endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT). Tumor xenografts model was used to evaluate the effect of NRP-1 on the tumor growth.
Results: The expression of NRP-1 was upregulated in the tumor tissues compared with the CIN and normal tissues (P <0.0001). The overall survival time of the high NRP-1 expression group was significantly shorter than that of the low NRP-1 expression group (P <0.0001); NRP-1-depleted cells had dramatically lower rate of proliferation, migration and invasion compared to control cells (all P <0.05). Depletion of NRP-1 significantly suppressed the growth of CaSki xenograft tumor in nude mice.
Conclusions: The current study demonstrated that NRP-1 expression is significantly correlated with the progression of CC. Notably, high NRP-1 expression is correlated with a poorer survival in patients with CC, and has been shown to be an independent prognostic factor.
Keywords: Neuropilin-1, NRP-1, cervical cancer, EMT, proliferation