Abnormal expression of PFDN4 in colorectal cancer: a novel marker for prognosis.

Background: Prefoldin 4 (PFDN4) is a transcriptional factor that regulates the cell cycle. PFDN4 is upregulated in breast tumor and breast cancer cell lines, but its significance in colorectal cancer (CRC) is not fully understood.
Methods: The present study assessed 129 patients who underwent surgery for CRC and assessed three cell lines derived from human CRC. The correlation of gene expression with clinical parameters in patients was assessed by knockdown experiments with these cell lines.
Results: Patients with high PFDN4 expression had a statistically relatively better prognosis, and those with low PFDN4 expression showed poorer overall survival than those with high expression. The assessment of PFDN4 knockdown in the three cell lines demonstrated that the siRNA inhibition resulted in a statistically significant increase in cell growth and invasiveness.
Conclusions: The data strongly suggest that PFDN4 expression is a prognostic factor in CRC.