Expression and clinical significance of GRIM-19 in lung cancer

We investigated the expression of gene associated with retinoid-interferon-induced mortality-19 (GRIM-19) in lung cancer, a recently discovered cell death regulatory gene. Over-expression of GRIM-19 potentially suppresses proliferation and promotes tumor cell apoptosis. However, the expression of GRIM-19 in human lung cancer has not yet been thoroughly investigated. All of the specimens were obtained using CT-guided lung puncture or bronchial biopsy. The expression of GRIM-19 was investigated using immunohistochemistry. The expression level of GRIM-19 was significantly different between lung cancer and lung inflammation. A relatively lower GRIM-19 expression level was also found in small cell lung carcinomas compared to squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. No significant difference between GRIM-19 expression in squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma was determined. Downregulation of GRIM-19 was found in non-small cell lung carcinomas stages III-IV compared to stages I-II, indicating a negative correlation between the expression level of GRIM-19 and the stage of the primary lesion (T). Furthermore, we found GRIM-19 to be primarily located in the cytoplasm in lung inflammation tissues, but located in the nucleus in lung cancer tissues. GRIM-19 expression occurs as an early phenomenon in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. Our study found that GRIM-19 expression in lung cancer is significantly lower compared to lung inflammation, exhibits a relationship with the histological type and clinical stage of lung cancer, and is a suitable target for the development of new lung cancer therapies.