Fibulin-5 is Down-Regulated in Colorectal Cancer and Correlated with Clinicopathologic Characteristics

Background: Fibulin-5 has recently been considered as a potential tumor suppressor in human cancers. Several studies have shown that it is down-regulated in a variety of tumor types and inhibits tumor growth and metastasis. In this study, the expression of fibulin-5 in colorectal cancer (CRC) and its clinical significance were assessed. Methods: Fibulin-5 expression was detected in 31 samples of surgically resected CRC and paired noncancerous tissues using western blot, qRT-PCR, and immunoblotting. Results: In this study, the expression levels of fibulin-5 protein and mRNA were down-regulated in CRC tissues as compared with those in paired noncancerous tissues. Low expression of fibulin-5 was significantly correlated with poor prognostic features including lymph node metastasis and advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) tumor stage. Conclusions: Fibulin-5 is down-regulated in CRC and the reduced expression of fibulin-5 was correlated with malignant clinicopathological characteristics.