Prognostic significance of astrocyte elevated gene-1 in human astrocytomas

Astrocyte Elevated Gene-1 (AEG-1) has been proposed as a biomarker for a variety of cancers. This study aimed to investigate the expression of AEG-1 in human astrocytomas and the correlation between AEG-1 expression and clinicopathologic variables of astrocytomas. AEG-1 expression in four pairs of matched astrocytomas tissues and 5 cell lines was detected by immunohistochemical and Western blot analysis. In addition, AEG-1 protein expression was examined by immunohistochemical staining in 204 cases, including 32 normal brain tissues, 80 Low-malignant astrocytomas (LMAs) and 92 High-Malignant astrocytomas (HMAs). AEG-1 expression in 31 LMAs and 29 HMAs samples was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. We detected AEG-1 expression in normal neurons and glioma cell lines U87, U251 and M059K, but not in normal glial cells. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that 128 of 172 (74.4%) paraffin-embedded archival astrocytomas samples exhibited positive AEG-1 expression. Statistical analysis suggested that higher AEG-1 level was significantly correlated with histological grade of astrocytomas. In addition, AEG-1 mRNA and protein expression was higher in HMAs than in LMAs. AEG-1 expression had no correlation with the gender or age of astrocytoma patients. In summary, our data suggest that AEG-1 may represent a novel prognostic marker for astrocytomas.