Conclusions
These results suggest that Foxl1 expression is a candidate predictor of clinical outcome in patients with resected ccRCC and it plays an inhibitory role in renal tumor progression.
Methods
Real-time quantitative PCR, western-blot, immunohistochemistry were used to explore Foxl1 expression in primary ccRCC clinical specimens and ccRCC cell lines. Foxl1 expression was up-regulated by over-expression vector in 786-O and ACHN cells, proliferation, cell cycle, migration and invasion were assayed.
Results
Foxl1 expression was down-regulated in the majority of the ccRCC clinical tissue specimens at both mRNA and protein levels. Clinic pathological analysis showed that Foxl1 expression was significantly correlated with tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, clinical TNM stage (cTNM) and histological grade of renal cancer. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed that low Foxl1 expression was associated with poor prognosis in ccRCC patients. Foxl1 expression was an independent prognostic marker of overall ccRCC patient survival in a multivariate analysis. Mechanistic analyses demonstrated that over-expression of Foxl1 inhibits tumor cell growth, migration and invasion in renal cancer cells. Conclusions: These results suggest that Foxl1 expression is a candidate predictor of clinical outcome in patients with resected ccRCC and it plays an inhibitory role in renal tumor progression.