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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 12|pp 16367—16380

High S100A9+ cell density predicts a poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients after curative resection

Jing Liao1,2,3, Jin-Zhu Li1, Jing Xu4, Yongquan Xu1, Wei-Ping Wen2, Limin Zheng1, Lian Li1
  • 1MOE Key Laboratory of Gene Function and Regulation, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510275, China
  • 2Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510655, China
  • 3Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510655, China
  • 4State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510060, China
* Equal contribution
Received: February 26, 2021Accepted: May 19, 2021Published: June 22, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203162

Copyright: © 2021 Liao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

S100A9 is differentially expressed in various cell types and is associated with the development, progression and metastasis of various cancers. However, the expression, distribution, and clinical significance of S100A9 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. In the present study, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to examine S100A9 gene expression in HCC; we found that S100A9 expression was associated with HCC prognosis. In addition, S100A9 protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry analysis of tissues from 382 HCC patients. We found that the infiltration of S100A9+ cells in both tumor and nontumor tissues could predict poor overall survival (P = 0.0329, tumor; P = 0.0003, nontumor) and a high recurrence risk (P = 0.0387, tumor; P = 0.0015, nontumor) in our tissue microarray analysis. Furthermore, immunofluorescence double staining revealed that the primary S100A9-expressing cells in adjacent nontumoral tissue were CD15+ neutrophils, and both CD68+ macrophages and CD15+ neutrophils expressed S100A9 in HCC tumor tissues. Taken together, the results suggest that high S100A9+ cell density predicts a poor prognosis in HCC patients, and S100A9 expression could potentially serve as an independent prognostic marker for HCC.