Abstract
We conducted a case-control study to investigate the association of COL18A1 D104N polymorphism in the development of osteosarcoma in a Chinese population. Between May 2012 and May 2014, 141 patients with pathologically proven osteosarcoma and 341 were selected into this study. Genotyping of COL18A1 D104N was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). By logistic regression analysis, we found that individuals with the NN genotype of COL18A1 D104N were significantly associated with an increased risk of osteosarcoma when compared with the DD genotype (OR=20.97, 95% CI=2.74-933.42). In dominant model, the NN+DN genotype of COL18A1 D104N had a 1.99 fold risk of osteosarcoma when compared with the DD genotype. Moreover, the NN genotype was correlated with a 20.45 fold risk of osteosarcoma when compared with the DN+DD genotype in recessive model. However, we did not find significant interaction between COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and Enneking stage, histological subtype, tumor metastasis and tumor location of patients with osteosarcoma. In conclusion, our study suggests that the homozygous DN and NN genotypes of COL18A1 D104N were associated with the risk of osteosarcoma.
Keywords: COL18A1, polymorphism, osteosarcoma
Introduction
Osteosarcoma is a highly malignant and aggressive bone tumor, which is derived from mesenchymal tissues and often occurs in the distal femur, proximal tibia and humeral metaphysis. Osteosarcoma is the most leading bone malignancy in adolescents [1]. It is estimated that the annual incidence of osteosarcoma is about 3/105 worldwide [1]. The osteosarcoma is caused by complex, multistep and multifactorial processes, and many environmental and genetic factors are involved in its carcinogenesis [2,3]. Previous experimental studies have conducted to investigate the cancer stem cells and their potential to cause tumors [4,5]. The concept of genetic factors being involved in the susceptibility to osteosarcoma has gained many studies to investigate the genetic determinants for osteosarcoma in the last decade.
Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting endothelium, is a discrete event in carcinogenesis that is related to the aggressive potential of a tumor [6,7]. Accumulating evidences suggest that the growth of tumors is associated with increased angiogenesis and that the formation of new blood vessels is a fundamental step in tumor development and expansion [8]. Previous study has reported that osteosarcoma is an angiogenesis dependent cancer [9]. A single nucleotide polymorphism, c.4309G>A (D104N), has been identified in the Endostatin domain of COL18A1; this polymorphism affects a site that is conserved in humans and mice [10,11]. Previous studies have reported the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism could influence the development of several kinds of cancers, such as adrenocortical tumors and breast cancer [8,11]. Until now, no study has been conducted to investigate the role of COL18A1 D104N polymorphism in the development of osteosarcoma. In our study, we conducted a case-control study to investigate the association of COL18A1 D104N polymorphism in the development of osteosarcoma in a Chinese population.
Materials and methods
Subjects
Between May 2012 and May 2014, 166 patients with pathologically proven osteosarcoma were selected from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University. Osteosarcoma patients were newly diagnosed and histopathologically confirmed independently by two pathologists (Figure 1). Patients who had primary tumors other than osteosarcoma, tumors of an unknown origin or any histopathologicl diagnosis other than osteosarcoma were excluded. Finally, 141 patients with osteosarcoma were included into our study, and the participation rate was 89.24%.
Figure 1.
Chondroblastic osteosarcoma.
A total of 352 adult healthy subjects without osteosarcoma were randomly collected from individuals who received regular health check-up in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University during May 2012 and May 2014. The control subjects were confirmed to be without any primary tumors. Finally, 341 patients agreed to participate in this study, and the participation rate was 96.88%.
Patients with osteosarcoma and control subjects were investigated by doctors to obtain demographic parameters, including gender, age and family history of cancer. The clinical and pathological information of patients with osteosarcoma were collected from the medical records, including Enneking stage, histological subtype, tumor location and tumor metastasis. All individuals voluntarily participated in the study and gave their informed consent. The protocol of this study was approved by the ethics committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University.
Genotyping
5 ml peripheral blood sample was drawn from each patient with osteosarcoma and control subject, and the peripheral blood sample was kept in -20°C until using. Genomic DNA was isolated from the blood samples using a Qiagen genomic DNA isolation kit according to manufacturer’s instructions. Genotyping of COL18A1 D104N was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Primers and probes for COL18A1 D104N were designed using Primer premier v5.0 software (Applied Biosystems). The primers for COL18A1 D104N were 5’-ACTTTCACCCACAGGGATC-3’ (forwards) and 5’-TTTCTCCTATCTGCAGGGC-3’ (reverse), respectively. The PCR amplification cycle was one cycle of DNA denaturation at 94°C for 5 min, followed by 30 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 1 min, 55°C annealing step for 1 min with a 72°C extension step for 2 min, with a final extension step of 5 min at 72°C. The PCR fragments of the investigated polymorphisms were subsequently digested with their specific restriction enzyme. Digestion products were separated by electrophoresis on ethidium bromide stained agarose gel and visualized under UV light.
Statically analysis
Frequencies were used to describe the distribution of categorical variables and median and interquartile range was used for continuous variables. The statistical significance of the differences between groups was calculated using a Chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test. Standard chi-square test was used to assess deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated for the association between COL18A1 D104N gene polymorphism and risk of osteosarcoma using logistic regression models adjusted for confounding factors. Multiple logistic regression models were established to estimate the interaction between COL18A1 D104N gene polymorphism and demographic characteristics in the risk of osteosarcoma. All tests were two-sided with a significant level of P-value <0.05. Statistical analysis was conducted using the SPSS 16.0 package (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
Results
The distributions of the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients with osteosarcoma and controls were shown in Table 1. The mean ages of the included patients and controls at the time of enrolling into our study were 17.3±6.1 and 16.7±6.4 years old. By χ2 test, patients with osteosarcoma were likely to have family history of cancer when compared with controls. Of the 141 patients with osteosarcoma, 78 (55.32%) patients were at I-II Enneking stage, 63 (44.68%) were at III stage, 86 (60.99%) were osteoblastic osteosarcoma, 21 (14.89%) were chondroblastic osteosarcoma, 19 (13.48%) were fibroblastic osteosarcoma, 45 (31.91%) had tumor metastasis and 87 (61.70%) showed extremities of osteosarcoma.
Table 1.
Clinicopathological characteristics of the patients with osteosarcoma and controls
| Characteristics | Patients | % | Controls | % | χ2 test | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||||||
| Female | 51 | 36.17 | 133 | 39.00 | ||
| Male | 90 | 63.83 | 208 | 61.00 | 0.34 | 0.56 |
| Age, years | ||||||
| <20 | 94 | 66.67 | 217 | 63.64 | ||
| ≥20 | 47 | 33.33 | 124 | 36.36 | 0.40 | 0.53 |
| Family history of cancer | ||||||
| No | 136 | 96.45 | 341 | 100.00 | ||
| Yes | 5 | 3.55 | 0 | 0.00 | 21.22 | 0.002 |
| Enneking stage | ||||||
| I-II | 78 | 55.32 | ||||
| III | 63 | 44.68 | ||||
| Histological subtype | ||||||
| Osteoblastic | 86 | 60.99 | ||||
| Chondroblastic | 21 | 14.89 | ||||
| Fibroblastic | 19 | 13.48 | ||||
| Other | 15 | 10.64 | ||||
| Tumor metastasis | ||||||
| Negative | 96 | 68.09 | ||||
| Positive | 45 | 31.91 | ||||
| Tumor location | ||||||
| Extremities | 87 | 61.70 | ||||
| Other | 54 | 38.30 | ||||
The genotype distributions of COL18A1 D104N were found to in line with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the control group (Table 2). By χ2-test, we found that genotype frequencies of the DD, DN and NN were significant difference between patients with osteosarcoma and controls (χ2=16.37, P<0.001). By logistic regression analysis, we found that the NN genotype of COL18A1 D104N was significantly associated with an increased risk of osteosarcoma when compared with the DD genotype (OR=20.97, 95% CI=2.74-933.42). In dominant model, the NN+DN genotype of COL18A1 D104N had a 1.99 fold risk of osteosarcoma when compared with the DD genotype. Moreover, the NN genotype was correlated with a higher risk of osteosarcoma than the DN+DD genotype in recessive model (OR=20.45, 95% CI=2.68-909.89).
Table 2.
Association between COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and the risk of osteosarcoma
| Polymorphisms | Patients | % | Controls | % | HWE | χ2-test | P value | Adjusted OR (95% CI)1 | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COL18A1 D104N | |||||||||
| Codominant | |||||||||
| DD | 119 | 84.40 | 312 | 91.50 | 0.66 | 16.37 | <0.001 | 1.0 (Ref.) | - |
| DN | 14 | 9.93 | 28 | 8.21 | 1.31 (0.62-2.68) | 0.43 | |||
| NN | 8 | 5.67 | 1 | 0.29 | 20.97 (2.74-933.42) | <0.001 | |||
| Dominant | |||||||||
| DD | 119 | 84.40 | 312 | 91.50 | 5.31 | 0.02 | 1.0 (Ref.) | - | |
| NN+DN | 22 | 15.60 | 29 | 8.50 | 1.99 (1.04-3.74) | 0.02 | |||
| Recessive | |||||||||
| DN+DD | 133 | 94.33 | 340 | 99.71 | 15.76 | <0.001 | 1.0 (Ref.) | - | |
| NN | 8 | 5.67 | 1 | 0.29 | 20.45 (2.68-909.89) | <0.001 | |||
Adjusted for sex, age and family history of cancer.
We further analyzed the association between COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and clinicopathological characteristics of osteosarcoma (Table 3). By χ2-test, we did not find significant interaction between COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and Enneking stage, histological subtype, tumor metastasis and tumor location of patients with osteosarcoma (P<0.05).
Table 3.
Association between COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and clinicopathological characteristics of osteosarcoma
| Patients | DD | % | DN+NN | % | χ2-test | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enneking stage | ||||||
| I-II | 64 | 53.78 | 14 | 63.64 | ||
| III | 55 | 46.22 | 8 | 36.36 | 0.73 | 0.69 |
| Histological subtype | ||||||
| Osteoblastic | 73 | 61.34 | 13 | 59.09 | ||
| Chondroblastic | 17 | 14.29 | 4 | 18.18 | ||
| Fibroblastic | 16 | 13.45 | 3 | 13.64 | ||
| Other | 13 | 10.92 | 2 | 9.09 | 0.26 | 0.97 |
| Tumor metastasis | ||||||
| Negative | 80 | 67.23 | 16 | 72.73 | ||
| Positive | 39 | 32.77 | 6 | 27.27 | 0.26 | 0.61 |
| Tumor location | ||||||
| Extremities | 72 | 60.50 | 15 | 68.18 | ||
| Other | 47 | 39.50 | 7 | 31.82 | 0.46 | 0.5 |
Discussion
Osteosarcoma is generally believed to be a gene-environment interaction disease with high morbidity and mortality. However, the mechanism of osteosarcoma was unclear. A number studies has showed that gene polymorphism is closely correlated with the risk of osteosarcoma recently. In our study, we investigated whether the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism alters the susceptibility of osteosarcoma, and found that individuals with the homozygous DN and NN genotypes were associated with risk of osteosarcoma. This is the first report to analyze the association between the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and development of osteosarcoma.
The COL18A1 D104N polymorphism of Endostatin, a 183-amino-acid proteolytic fragment produced by the cleavage of the C-terminal non-collagenous domain (NC1) of human type XVIII collagen, is an efficient anti-angiogenic molecule [12]. As an angiogenic inhibitor, Endostatin could prevent tumor growth and expansion by controlling the formation of new blood vessels. In vitro and in vivo studies, they have shown that treatment with Endostatin can increase apoptotic activity and decrease microvessel density and metastasis in many tumors [13-15].
Previous studies have reported the role of the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism in the susceptibility of many benign and malignant tumors, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer, multiple myeloma and lung cancer as well as adrenocortical tumors [8,11,16-20]. Wu et al. conducted three independent case-control studies in a Chinese population, and they reported that COL18A1 rs7499 could contribute to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma [16]. Iughetti et al. have reported that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism is associated with risk of prostate cancer [18]. Another three studies have reported that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism contributes to the development of, prostate cancer, myeloma and lung cancer [17,19,20]. However, some studies reported inconsistent results. One study in Brazilian has reported that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism has no associated with risk of adrenocortical tumors. Another study in a British population has reported that COL18A1 D104N polymorphism is not associated with susceptibility of breast cancer [11]. In our study, we have found that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism is significantly associated with an increased risk of osteosarcoma, which is controversial with previous studies. These different results may be due to the heterogeneity of the different diseases, ethnicities, study design, source of patients and sample size.
In our study, we did not find that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism has association with clinicopathological characteristics of osteosarcoma, including Enneking stage, histological subtype, tumor metastasis and tumor location of patients with osteosarcoma. One previous study have also reported that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism is no associated with tumour grade, nodal status, vascular invasion or overall survival of breast cancer [11]. Further studies are greatly needed to confirm our results.
There are three limitations in our study. First, patients with osteosarcoma and controls were selected from one hospital, and selection bias may exist and influence the results of our study. Second, we did not observe a significant association between the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism and clinicopathological characteristics of osteosarcoma. This result may be due to the small number of the NN genotype may influence their association. Third, the sample size of this study is relatively small, and small sample size may limit the statistical power to find differences between groups.
In conclusion, our study suggests that the homozygous DN and NN genotypes of COL18A1 D104N were associated with the risk of osteosarcoma. Therefore, our study has indicated that the COL18A1 D104N polymorphism may contribute to the development of osteosarcoma. Further large sample studies are greatly warranted to elucidate our finding.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Scientific Research Fund of Xinxiang Medical University (2014QN104).
Disclosure of conflict of interest
None.
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