Expressions of miR-129-5p and CBX4 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and their clinical significance

JI Xiaolei; QI Qige; WANG Zexin

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-3806.2025.04.09

Abstract：Objective To analyze the expressions of miR-129-5p and chromobox homolog 4(CBX4)in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)tissues and their clinical significance.Methods The clinical data of 120 HCC patients were collected from the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University between August 2018 and August 2021.Bioinformatics method was used to analyze the CBX4 protein level in HCC tissues and normal tissues and the targeted regulatory relationship between miR-129-5p and CBX4.The cancerous tissues and their para-cancerous tissues(≥5 cm from the cancerous tissues)were collected from the patients.Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR)was used to detect the levels of miR-129-5p and CBX4 mRNA in the tissues.According to the average level of miR-129-5p in the cancerous tissues,the patients were divided into low miR-129-5p expression group and high miR-129-5p expression group.The expression of CBX4 protein was detected by using immunohistochemical staining.According to the expressions of CBX4 protein in the cancerous tissues,the patients were divided into CBX4 positive expression group and CBX4 negative expression group.The survival of the patients during the follow-up period of 3 years was recorded.Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between miR-129-5p and CBX4 mRNA level in the cancerous tissues.Kaplan-Meier method was used to plot the survival curves,and log-rank test was used for comparison between groups.Cox regression was used to analyze the prognostic factors of the HCC patients.Results The results of bioinformatics analysis showed that the level of CBX4 protein in the HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the normal tissues(P＜0.05),and there was a targeted regulatory relationship between miR-129-5p and CBX4 protein.The positive expression rate of CBX4 protein in the HCC patients'cancerous tissues was significantly higher than that in the HCC patients'para-cancerous tissues[65.00％(78/120)vs 24.17％(29/120),x2=40.492,P＜0.05)].The level of miR-129-5p in the cancerous tissues was lower than that in their para-cancerous tissues,while the level of CBX4 mRNA in the cancerous tissues was higher than that in their para-cancerous tissues,with statistically significant differences between the cancerous tissues and their para-cancerous tissues(P＜0.05).There was a negative correlation between miR-129-5p level and CBX4 mRNA level in the cancerous tissues(r=-0.676,P＜0.05).The proportion of the patients with clinical stagesⅢ-Ⅳ,low tumor differentiation and vascular invasion in the low miR-129-5p expression group(＜0.72)was significantly higher than that in the high miR-129-5p expression group(≥0.72)(P＜0.05).The proportion of the patients with clinical stages Ⅲ-Ⅳ,low tumor differentiation and vascular invasion in the CBX4 positive expression group was significantly higher than that in the CBX4 negative expression group(P＜0.05).The survival prognosis of the high miR-129-5p expression group was better than that of the low miR-129-5p expression group(log-rank test:x2=19.048,P＜0.001).The survival prognosis of the CBX4 negative expression group was better than that of the CBX4 positive expression group(log-rank test:x2=11.977,P=0.001).The results of multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that high expression of miR-129-5p was an independent protective factor for the patients'survival(P＜0.05),while positive expression of CBX4 and clinical stages Ⅲ-Ⅳ were independent risk factors for the patients'death(P＜0.05).Conclusion The level of miR-129-5p decreases and the level of CBX4 increases in HCC tissues,which are related to clinical stage,degree of tumor differentiation,vascular invasion and survival prognosis.