Expression level of LAYN in gastric cancer patients and its correlation with immune cell infiltration and prognosis

Nueramina Kadierjiang; Zheng Chao; Mayinuer Aili

doi:10.3760/j.issn.1673-4777.2026.02.010

Abstract：Objective To detect the mRNA expression level of LAYN gene in gastric cancer tissues and analyze its correlation with immune cell infiltration in cancer tissues and its relationship with disease progression.Methods A prospective follow-up study was conducted.A total of 112 gastric cancer patients who underwent surgical treatment at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from May 2022 to February 2023 were selected.All patients were divided into progression group and non-progression group according to whether disease progression occurred during the follow-up period.Clinical and laboratory data were compared between the two groups.Cox regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with gastric cancer progression.Pearson correlation analysis was applied to evaluate the correlation between LAYN gene mRNA expression level in gastric cancer tissues and the degree of immune cell infiltration.Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted to analyze the risk of disease progression in patients with different LAYN gene Mrna expression levels.Results After excluding 6 lost-to-follow-up patients,76 out of the remaining 106 patients developed disease progression,thus divided into progression group(76 cases)and non-progression group(30 cases),at the same time,normal gastric tissue adjacent to the patient's cancer was used as control(control group).Statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in clinical stage,differentiation degree,and LAYN gene Mrna expression level(all P<0.05).Cox regression analysis showed that LAYN gene Mrna expression level(hazard ratio=1.551),clinical stage(hazard ratio=5.476),and differentiation degree(hazard ratio=6.675)were independently associated with gastric cancer progression(all P<0.05).In the progression group,the infiltration proportions of CD+8 T cells,CD+4 T cells,and macrophages in gastric cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in the non-progression group and control group,while the infiltration proportion of dendritic cells was lower than that in the non-progression group and control group(all P<0.05).There were statistically significant differences in the infiltration proportions of CD+8 T cells,CD+4 T cells,macrophages,and dendritic cells between the non-progression group and control group(all P<0.05).Pearson correlation analysis revealed that LAYN gene Mrna expression level was positively correlated with the infiltration degrees of CD+8 T cells and macrophages in tumor tissues(r=0.558,P=0.022;r=0.401,P=0.016,respectively)and negatively correlated with the infiltration degree of dendritic cells(r=-0.423,P=0.019).Using the median Mrna expression level of LAYN gene in gastric cancer tissues as the cutoff value,Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high LAYN gene Mrna expression had a significantly higher risk of disease progression than those with low LAYN gene Mrna expression(log-rank χ2=5.784,P=0.008).Conclusion Gastric cancer patients with high Mrna expression of LAYN gene in gastric cancer tissues have a higher risk of disease progression,and the Mrna expression level of LAYN gene in gastric cancer tissues is correlated with the infiltration level of immune cells in cancer tissues.