Expression and clinical significance of KLF4 in the urine of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the expression and clinical significance of Kruppel-like factor 4（KLF4） in the urine exfoliated cells of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma（CCRCC）. Methods：Urine samples were collected from 58 patients pathologically confirmed to have CCRCC after operation and 40 healthy volunteers. The expression rate of KLF4 mRNA was determined by RT-PCR，and the expression rate of KLF4 protein was determined by Western blot. The relationship between the expression of KLF4 and the clinicopathological parameters of CCRCC patients was analyzed. Results：The expression of KLF4 in the urine exfoliated cells of CCRCC patients was down-regulated significantly. In the CCRCC group，the negative rate of KLF4 expression was 87.9%（51/58），while the positive rate of its expression was only 12.1%；in the control group，the negative rate of KLF4 expression was 7.50%（3/40），while the positive rate of its expression was 92.5%；there was a significant difference in the negative rate of KLF4 expression between the two groups（P<0.05）. The down-regulation of KLF4 in CCRCC patients was not associated with age（ χ2=0.369，P=0.544），sex（ χ2=0.705，P=0.401），tumor size（ χ2=3.481，P=0.062），clinical stage（ χ2=0.762，P=0.859），degree of tissue differentiation（ χ2=0.064，P=0.996），and lymph node metastasis（ χ2=0.301，P=0.583）. Conclusion：The detection of urine KLF4 may be helpful to the early diag－nosis and postoperative monitoring of CCRCC，and RT-PCR is a feasible detection method in clinical practice.