ACTL8 expression and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis in breast cancer

AIM: To investigate the actin-like protein 8 (ACTL8) expression and its relationship with clinicopathological features and prognosis in breast cancer.METHODS: The expression of ACTL8 in human normal mammary epithelial cell line MCF-10A and 5 breast cancer cell lines was detected by Western blot. The expression of ACTL8 was also investigated by immunohistochemistry in 6 cases of breast cancer specimens with adjacent normal tissues. The data in 488 cases of breast specimens from TCGA dataset were downloaded, and the relationship between the mRNA expression of ACTL8 and the clinicopathological features and prognosis was analyzed.RESULTS: The expression of ACTL8 in 4 breast cancer cell lines was significantly higher than that in breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A.The level of the ACTL8 expression in breast tumors was significantly higher than that in the corresponding adjacent normal breast tissues. The mRNA expression of ACTL8 was correlated with age, tumor size, clinical TNM stage and lymph node metastasis of breast cancer patients (P < 0.05). The high expression level of ACTL8 mRNA indicated a poor prognosis of breast cancer patients. CONCLUSION: ACTL8 protein is highly expressed in breast cancer specimens and is closely correlated with the clinicopathological features and prognosis, suggesting that ACTL8 is a prognostic marker for breast cancer or a potential new target for treatment of breast cancer.