Comparison of autophagy related proteins expression between clear cell renal cell carcinoma and adjacent tissue

Objective To investigate the autophagy capacity in clear cell renal cell carcinoma tissue compared with adjacent normal tissue.Methods Sixty-nine pairs of samples from human clear cell renal cell carcinoma tissues and relatively healthy renal tissues adjacent to the tumor were collected during surgical resection.The expressions of proteins that were participating in the regulation and execution of autophagy were detected by immunohistochemisty.Electron-microscopy was also carried out for the morphometrical analysis.Results The protein expression of p-mTOR (P =0.004),P62 (P =0.000) and ULK1 (P =0.000) were up-regulated in the carcinoma tissue,while the expression of Beclin1 (P=0.000),LC3 (P =0.000) and ATG7 (P =0.000) were down-regulated,and the expression of ATG5 (P =0.349) had no signif-icant difference compared with adjacent normal tissue.Morphometrical analysis showed that the basal autophagic activity (measured by the presence of autophagy vacuole compartment) was remarkably down-regulated in carcinoma tissue,compared with adjacent normal tissue.The expression level of mTOR was correlated with P62,LC3 and ATG7,but results showed no correlation between mTOR and Beclin 1.Conclusion Our studies show a relatively reduced autophagy capacity in clear cell renal cell carcinoma,which is regulated by multiple autophagy-related proteins such as mTOR,Beclin 1 and LC3. Key words: Autophagy;  Autophagy related protein p-mTOR;  Autophagy related protein Beclin 1;  Autophagy related protein LC3;  Kidney neoplasms