Expression and clinical significance of secretory crimpy-associated protein 4 in endometrial cancer

WANG Xiaoyu; ZHANG Jingwen; FENG Wen

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-0460.2025.06.005

Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression of secretory coiling-associated protein 4(SFRP4)in endometrial cancer tissues and its clinical significance.Methods The expression level of SFRP4 in Pan-Cancer in the TCGA pan-cancer dataset was analyzed using R language.The expression level of SFRP4 in 86 pairs of endometrial cancer and adjacent tissues was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(qPCR)method.The relationship between the expression of SFRP4 and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients was analyzed.The HHUA and Ishikawa cells were transfected with the SFRP4 overexpression plasmid as the LV-SFRP4 group,and the negative Control plasmid was transfected as the control group.The proliferation and apoptosis abilities of the two groups of cells were detected by CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry.Ishikawa cells transfected with SFRP4 overexpressing plasmids were co-cultured with THP1 and Jurkat T cells respectively.Flow cytometry was used to detect the effects of upregulation of SFRP4 expression on macrophage polarization and T cell exhaustion.Results The expression level of SFRP4 in endometrial cancer tissues was significantly lower than that in adjacent normal tissues(3.211±2.369 vs.4.428±2.595),and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.01).The expression of SFRP4 is related to clinical stage,muscular invasion,vascular invasion and lymph node metastasis,etc.(P<0.05).Upregulation of SFRP4 expression can inhibit the proliferation of endometrial cancer cells and promote their apoptosis.It can inhibit tumor cell-mediated M2 polarization of macrophages and T cell exhaustion in the immune microenvironment.Conclusion SFRP4 is lowly expressed in endometrial cancer and exerts tumor suppressor effects by regulating tumor cell proliferation,apoptosis and the immune microenvironment.