RCCs are classified into five major subtypes: clear cell (the mos

RCCs are classified into five major subtypes: clear cell (the most important type, accounts for 82%), papillary, chromophobe, collecting duct, and unclassified RCC [2]. Operation is the first treatment choice for RCC; however, some patients already have metastasis at the time of diagnosis and are resistant to conventional chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy [3]. Thus, a more effective anti-tumor therapy

is urgently needed. Protein kinase C (PKC), a family of phospholipid-dependent serine/threonine kinases, plays an important role in intracellular CDK inhibitor signaling in cancer [4–8]. To date, at least 11 PKC family members have been identified. PKC isoenzymes can be categorized into three groups by their structural and biochemical properties: the conventional or classical ones (α, βI, βII, and γ) require Ca2+ and diacylglycerol (DAG) for their activation; the novel ones (δ, ε, η, and θ) are dependent on DAG but not Ca2+; the atypical ones (ζ and λ/ι) are independent of both Ca2+ and DAG [4–6]. Among them, PKCε is the only isoenzyme that has been considered as an oncogene which regulates cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, chemo-resistance, and differentiation via the cell signaling network by interacting with three major factors RhoA/C, Stat3, and Akt [9–13]. PKCε is

overexpressed in many types of cancer, including bladder cancer [14], prostate cancer [15], breast cancer AZD1080 supplier [16], head and neck squamous cell carcinoma [17], and lung cancer [18] as well as RCC cell

lines [19, 20]. The overexpression and functions of PKCε imply its potential as a therapeutic target of of cancer. In this study, we detected the expression of PKCε in 128 human primary RCC tissues and 15 normal tissues and found that PKCε expression was up-regulated in these tumors and correlated with tumor grade. Furthermore, PKCε regulated cell proliferation, colony formation, invasion, migration, and chemo-resistance of clear cell RCC cells. Those results suggest that PKCε is crucial for eFT508 clinical trial survival of clear cell RCC cells and may serve as a therapeutic target of RCC. Methods Samples We collected 128 specimens of resected RCC and 15 specimens of pericancerous normal renal tissues from the First Affiliated Hospital of the Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China). All RCC patients were treated by radical nephrectomy or partial resection. Of the 128 RCC samples, 10 were papillary RCC, 10 were chromophobe RCC, and 108 were clear cell RCC according to the 2002 AJCC/UICC classification. The clear cell RCC samples were from 69 male patients and 39 female patients at a median age of 56.5 years (range, 30 to 81 years). Tumors were staged according to the 2002 TNM staging system [21] and graded according to the Fuhrman four-grade system [22]. Informed consent was obtained from all patients to allow the use of samples and clinical data for investigation.

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