Integrative analysis of BSG expression in NPC through immunohistochemistry and public high-throughput gene expression...

Though basigin (BSG) was reported to be overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and correlate with the development of NPC, the molecular basis of BSG in NPC remained elusive. The aim of the research was to investigate BSG expression in NPC and the potential molecular mechanism underlying it.

BSG expression in NPC tissues was detected with immunohistochemistry. Chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlation test were performed to examine the relationship between BSG expression and the clinico-pathological features as well as EGFR and P-53 expression in NPC. In addition, data from the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database and oncomine were collected to validate BSG expression in NPC. Meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the association between BSG expression and the clinico-pathological variables of NPC. The prognostic value and the alteration of BSG gene status were also analyzed with data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

BSG presented notably higher expression in NPC tissues than in non-cancer tissues. Moreover, IHC results showed that BSG expression was significantly correlated with tumor progression. A positive correlation was also found between BSG expression and EGFR, P53 expression. Meta-analysis confirmed that BSG was indicative of lymph node metastasis and TNM stage in NPC. Additionally, data from cBioPortal indicated that alteration of BSG gene existed in 5% of NPC cases and BSG correlative genes were obtained from the Co-expression Analysis in TCGA.

BSG was overexpressed in NPC and might have an oncogenic effect on the tumorigenesis and progression of NPC.