Expression and Clinical Significance of Tbx2 in Pancreatic Cancer

TBX2 is one of the family of genes encoding developmental transcription factors, characterized by a 200 amino acid DNA binding domain (T-box), found to be related to malignant phenotypes of mammary cancer. However, the role of TBX2 in pancreatic cancer progression remains unclear. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the expression and clinical significance of TBX2 in pancreatic cancer. Immunohistochemistry was carried out on paraffin-embedded sections of pancreatic cancer and normal pancreatic tissues. In addition, semiquantitative RT-PCR and Western blots were carried out to analyze mRNA and protein expression of Tbx2 in 6 pairs of freshly resected pancreatic cancer and their adjacent nontumorous tissue. TBX2 expression was significantly increased in pancreatic cancer tissue (29/48 or 60.4%). The expression level of Tbx2 had a significant positive relationship with tumor differentiation degree, higher TNM stage and distant metastasis. Also, mRNA and protein expression of Tbx2 were found to be at higher levels in almost all cancer tissues compared to adjacent tissues. In conclusion, Tbx2 protein might play an important role in the process of the development and metastasis of pancreatic cancers and high-level Tbx2 expression might be related to malignant potential.