Increased gene expression levels of collagen receptor... : Melanoma Research (original) (raw)

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Increased gene expression levels of collagen receptor integrins are associated with decreased survival parameters in patients with advanced melanoma

Vuoristo, Mikkoa b c; Vihinen, Piaa; Vlaykova, Tatyanae; Nylund, Camillab d; Heino, Jyrkib d; Pyrhönen, Seppoa

aDepartment of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Turku University Hospital

bMedicity Research Laboratory

cTurku Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

dDepartments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

eDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, Trakia University, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

Correspondence to Pia Vihinen, MD, PhD, Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Turku University Hospital, POB 52, FIN-20521 Turku, Finland

Tel: +358 2 313 0804; fax: +358 2 313 2809;

e-mail: [email protected]

Received 28 November 2006 Accepted 14 May 2007

Abstract

Expression of collagen receptor integrins α1β1 and α2β1 has been associated with progression and metastatic potential of malignant melanoma. Integrin α2β1 was originally characterized as a melanoma progression antigen. We have used real-time quantitative PCR to study the mRNA expression levels of three collagen receptor integrin chains, that is α1, α2 and α11 in metastases from 26 patients with melanoma. Interestingly, we find that survival after initiation of chemoimmunotherapy was significantly decreased in all patients whose tumours expressed high mRNA levels of α1 integrin, α2 integrin or α11 integrin when compared with lower tumour expression levels (P<0.05, log rank test). Moreover, those patients with high mRNA levels of all studied integrins had a significantly shorter survival from the appearance of the first metastasis than the patients with low levels of integrins (P<0.05). Furthermore, a high mRNA expression level of integrin α2 was found to be associated with poorer overall survival. High α2 mRNA levels (_n_=6) were associated with median survival of 35 months and low α2 mRNA levels (_n_=20), with median survival of 53 months (_P_=0.033). We conclude that collagen receptor integrins are important in the progression and prognosis of metastatic melanoma, and their measurements might be used as predictive markers when assessing disease progression.