Expression of transglutaminase 4 in prostate cancer and its clinical significance

Objective To investigate the value of transglutaminase 4 in diagnosis and prognosis prediction of prostate cancer.Methods Transglutaminase 4 immunostaining was performed with paraffin sections from 159 prostate cancer patients receiving radical prostatectomy,and the staining results were divided into 4 levels:negative staining,weak staining,moderate staining,and strong staining.The clinical and pathological information of the patients were obtained by reviewing the medical records.The follow-up data were collected by reviewing medical records,prostate cancer database of our department,and telephoning the patients or their family members.Expression of transglutaminase 4 and clinical,prognosis data of patients were subjected to statistical analysis.Results The expression of transglutaminase 4 in the prostatic cancer tissue was significantly higher than that in the adjacent normal tissue(P0.001);and the expressions were significantly different in patients with different Gleason grades(P0.001)and different prostate specific antigen levels(P=0.005).Univariate Cox regression analysis indicated that high transglutaminase 4 expression was a risk factor of biochemical recurrence of prostatic cancer(P=0.020),but multivariate Cox regression analysis did not support this finding(P=0.139).Conclusion Transglutaminase 4 expression is increased in prostate cancer tissues,and the expression is stronger in malignant tissues with higher Gleason grade and prostate specific antigen level.