Investigating the Relationship between the Expression Level of Membrane-Bound Mucin (MUC12) and Clinicopathological Characterization of Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in the world and has a high mortality rate. It is accepted that dysfunction in the expression of mucins are associated with the occurrence and development of CRC. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of MUC12 gene in colorectal cancer and their relationship with clinicopathological variables.   Materials and Methods: This research was prospective case-control study. Tumors from CRC patients were collected from the Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.  RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis were performed using the corresponding kits. The gene primer was designed and RT-PCR was used to evaluate gene expression. The t-test and ANOVA were used to examine the differences between the different groups. Data analysis was performed using Prism8 software. Data analysis was performed using Prism8 software.   Results: The results of the present study showed that the expression of MUC12 (P=0.0012) gene in patients with colorectal cancer were significantly different from tumor margin samples. There were also associations between the expression of the studied gene and clinicopathological variables such as grade and stage of colorectal cancer tumor as well as the age of the patients. The area under the curves (AUC) for the MUC12 0.953 (95% CI 7565 to 0.9897, P=0.0003) was calculated by ROC analysis.   Conclusion: It can be stated that malignant transformation of colorectal cells is accompanied by changes in the expression of membrane-bound MUC gene (MUC12) in colorectal cancer, which has a biomarker value for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer