Stanniocalcin-1, a new biomarker of glioma progression, is associated with prognosis of patients

Stanniocalcin-1 (STC1) is a secreted glycoprotein hormone and highly expressed in various types of human malignancies. Although evidence points to the role of STC1 in human cancers, the clinical significance of STC1 expression in glioma has not been established. Here, we investigated the relationship between STC1 expression and clinicopathological significance in glioma. In our study, we selected 60 cases of different grades glioma tissues to detect the expression of STC1. Data showed that the mRNA and protein levels of STC1 in high-grade glioma tissues were significantly higher than that in low-grade tissues. The results of double immunofluorescent staining disclosed STC1 distribution in vascular endothelial cells and the cytoplasm in high-grade glioma, but almost distributed only in vascular endothelial cells in low-grade glioma. By immunohistochemistry, we got the same results and the expression of STC1 has significant difference in high-grade gliomas and low-grade gliomas. Furthermore, the results of Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that cases with high STC1expression had significantly worse overall survival than those with low level of STC1. These results suggested that STC1 may be a valuable biomarker in diagnosing malignant degree of glioma and evaluating prognostic following surgery. Next, we would study the pathophysiological mechanism of STC1 in glioma.