Objective: To investigate CTGF and WISP-1 genes expression levels and theirs relations to clinical and pathological features in human lung carcinomas.
Methods: The CTGF and WISP-1 mRNA expression levels in samples from sixty primary lung cancers and their matched normal lung tissues were quantified by quantitative real-time PCR assay and immunohistochemistry staining.
Results: Down-regulations of CTGF gene were quantified found in 65% (39/60) primary lung cancers in comparison the paired normal lung tissues (t = -1.59, P = 0.016). The up-regualtions of WISP-1 gene were observed in 83% (50/60) lung cancers in comparison their normal counterparts (t = 4.15, P = 0.000). These results were further conformed by immunohistochemistry staining. Pearson's correlation analysis showed that WISP-1 was negatively associated with CTGF (r = - 0.299, P = 0.020). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the position of the tumor and sex were key factors for CTGF expression, and tumor type, age, family history were valuable predictors for WISP-1 expression.
Conclusion: These results suggested that CTGF and WISP-1 could play an important role in the progression of primary lung cancers by either individual gene itself or two-gene co-interactions of these genes and theirs relations to clinical and pathological features.