Associations of Factor XIII Activity with Cell-type and Stage of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Introduction: Factor (F) XIII is a thrombin-activated plasma transglutaminase zymogen, which has been reported to support tumor development and metastasis. The purpose of this study was to examine whether FXIII activity levels differed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients compared with healthy subjects, and differences in levels of FXIII activity between NSCLC cell types and stages. Methods: Twenty eight NSCLC patients were enrolled; 13 adenocarcinoma, 11 squamous cell carcinoma, and 4 undifferentiated NSCLC; 7 stage I-IIIA, 11 stage IIIB, and 10 stage IV. Age, gender, body mass index and smoking status matched healthy subjects were selected from participants of The Korean Health and Genome Study. FXIII activity was measured using fluorescence based protein arrays. FXIII activity was expressed as Loewy unit per milliliter (Loewy U/mL). Results: FXIII activity (mean±standard deviation) of the NCSLC group (30.9±21.2 Loewy U/mL) was significantly higher than that of the healthy group (18.6±8.0 Loewy U/mL) (p=0.007). In subgroup analysis, FXIII activities were significantly different among adenocarcinoma (23.2±13.8 Loewy U/mL), squamous cell carcinoma (32.9±18.6 Loewy U/mL), undifferentiated NSCLC (50.5±36.9 Loewy U/mL) and healthy group (p=0.007). FXIII activity, in the comparison according to the stage, were significantly different among stage I-IIIA (17.9±8.6 Loewy U/mL), stage IIIB-IV (35.3±22.5 Loewy U/mL) and healthy group (p=0.001). Conclusions: FXIII might have a potential role in progression and metastasis of NSCLC.