High hnRNP AB expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer

Heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein AB (hnRNP AB) is a member of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein family, which serves important functions in gene expression and signal transduction. However, the expression and clinicopathological significance of hnRNP AB in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain to be elucidated. To investigate the expression and clinical significance of hnRNP AB in CRC, hnRNP AB expression levels were analysed in two independent cohorts of patients with CRC. The results of reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis demonstrated that hnRNP AB was upregulated in CRC tissues compared with the corresponding adjacent normal tissues. Immunohistochemical analyses indicated that a high expression of hnRNP AB was significantly associated with preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA; P<0.001) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (P=0.014) levels, tumour size (P=0.022) and infiltration (P=0.026), lymph node metastasis (P<0.001) and Tumour-Node-Metastasis stage (P<0.001). Univariate and multivariate Cox survival analyses revealed that hnRNP AB expression and preoperative CEA levels were significant independent factors affecting overall survival in patients with CRC (P<0.05). According to the Kaplan-Meier model, patients with CRC with high hnRNP AB expression exhibited significantly poorer prognosis compared with those with low hnRNP AB expression (P<0.001). In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that hnRNP AB expression may serve an important role in the progression of CRC and that hnRNP AB may be considered a predictor of prognosis for patients with CRC.