LNK protein: Low expression in human colorectal carcinoma and relationship with tumor invasion

Objective: A large number of studies have explored the function of LNK in hematologic system disease, while that in solid tumors has been rarely investigated. In the present study, we attempted to explore the expression level of LNK in colorectal cancer (CRC) as well as the potential relationship between them. Materials and methods: The expression levels of LNK were examined using real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in cancer tissues and the matching adjacent normal tissues. Then, clinical data, including gender, age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, parenteral invasion situation, distant metastasis, and TNM stage, from 32 patients were analyzed. Finally, we detected the effect of LNK on the invasion by performing a transwell assay in HCT 116 cells and HT29 cells. Results: The RT-PCT results revealed that the expression level of LNK was significantly lower in colorectal cancer tissues than that in normal tissues. After analyzing the clinical pathological characteristics, we discovered that LNK had a negative expression in 56.3% patients with colorectal cancer. Moreover, the LNK negative expression was recorded in 83.3% patients with invasion, which was significantly higher than that in patients with positive LNK (42.9%, P < 0.05). A further study verified that the overexpression of LNK effectively reduced the invasion ability of the tumor cells in the transwell assay. Conclusion: Our present study reported that LNK as an adaptor protein had low expression in colorectal cancer and was related to tumor invasion, which provided a new potential therapeutic strategy for CRC treatment.