Aberrant Expression of N-Methylpurine-DNA Glycosylase Influences Patient Survival in Malignant Gliomas

AIM To examine the expression of N-methylpurine-DNA glycosylase (MPG) gene and protein in glioma samples with different WHO grades and its association with patients' survival. METHODS Immunohistochemistry assay, quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot analysis were carried out to investigate the expression of MPG gene and protein in 128 glioma and 10 non-neoplastic brain tissues. RESULTS MPG gene expression level in glioma tissues was significantly higher than that in non-neoplastic brain tissues (P < 0.001). Immunohistochemistry also showed that MPG protein was over-expressed in glioma tissues, which was consistent with the resutls of Western blot analysis. Additionally, the expression levels of MPG gene and protein both increase from grade I to grade IV glioma according to the results of real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. Moreover, the survival rate of MPG-positive patients was significantly lower than that of MPG-negative patients (P < 0.001). We further confirmed that the over-expression of MPG was a significant and independent prognostic indicator in glioma by multivariate analysis (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our data showed the over-expression of MPG gene and protein in human gliomas, and also suggested for the first time that MPG be an unfavorable independent prognostic indicator for glioma patients.