Correlation between GDF15, MMP7 and gastric cancer and its prognosis
Authors: P-Y Zhang
Q Wang
L Lu
X-D Liu
M Liu
G-Q Ma
R-R Sun
Journal: European review for medical and pharmacological sciences (2017)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: GDF15; MMP7; gastric cancer; prognosis; mRNA
Affiliations: First College of Clinical Medicine, NanjingUniversity of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. .

Abstract:  Objective: To explore the correlation between GDF15, MMP7 and gastric cancer and its prognosis. Patients and methods: Thirty-six cases of gastric cancer admitted to our hospital from February 2014 to February 2015 were included in the observation group. Thirty-two healthy people were selected during the same period as the control group. The levels of MMP7 and GDF15 mRNA in the observation group before and after treatment and in the control group were detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The expressions of GDF15 and MMP7 proteins were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western-blotting analysis. The expression of GDF15 and MMP7 in gastric carcinoma were tested by immunohistochemistry assay. Results: Compared with the control group, the levels of GDF15 and MMP7mRNA in the observation group were significantly increased in gastric cancer tissue before treatment (p&lt;0.05). After treatment, there was no significant difference in the expressions of GDF15 and MMP7 mRNA in patients with significant improvement and the control group (p&gt;0.05). Immunohistochemistry and Western blot results found that levels of GDF15 and MMP7 proteins in the observation group before treatment (14.28±1.03: 9.06±0.82 g/l) were significantly higher than that in the control group (1.05±0.21; 0.94±0.12 g/l). And there were no significant differences between patients with significant improvement (1.64±0.18; 1.03±0.22 mg/l) and the control group (p&gt;0.05), while the levels in patients with no significant improvement (12.04±1.01; 8.21±0.65 mg/l) were significantly higher than that in the control group. Immunohistochemical results showed that the number of GDF15 and MMP7 positive cells in patients with significant improvement (10.32%; 9.01%) were significantly lower than that before treatment or in patients with no significant improvement (85.43%; 90.27%). Conclusions: There were significant correlations between GDF15, MMP7 and the incidence of gastric cancer. Levels of GDF15 and MMP7 in patients were significantly correlated with the degree of rehabilitation after treatment. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Figure 6 was pointed out to me by a reader. * Red boxes: Panels A and B appear to overlap * Blue boxes: Panels C and D appear to overlap, with a rotation ![file] , 
 I have two other concerns about this paper. * None of the bar graphs include error bars ![file] * What types of tissues were obtained from the patients and controls? * How were the healthy people selected? Assuming gastric biopsies were analyzed, I cannot imagine that a lot of healthy volunteers would be available for endoscopy and tissue sampling. , 
 The paper has much to say about pre-treatment post-treatment comparisons. Surprisingly, nothing is said about the treatments themselves. ,