Original contributionMortalin expression in pancreatic cancer and its clinical and prognostic significance

- Mortalin is abnormally and strongly expressed in PDAC tissues.
- Positive associations between Mortalin expression and clinicopathological factors were detected.
- High expression of Mortalin predicted poor prognosis of PDAC patients.
- Mortalin expression may act as an independent prognostic biomarker for PDAC.

SummaryMortalin, an essential mitochondrial chaperone protein, is involved in the tumorigenesis of a number of malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the expression of Mortalin in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells and to determine its clinicopathological and prognostic significance. The localization of Mortalin protein was detected in BXPC-3 PDAC cells using immunofluorescence. Immunohistochemistry was also used to detect Mortalin expression in well-defined tissues obtained from 106 PDAC patients and 46 corresponding nontumor pancreatic tissues. Clinicopathological parameters and overall survival data were collected and compared between different Mortalin statuses. The results of immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence showed that Mortalin was primarily present in the cytoplasm of PDAC cells. The ratio of strong positive staining for Mortalin was higher in PDAC tissues (55.66%; 59/106) than in normal adjacent tissues (23.91%; 11/46). Positive relationships between Mortalin expression and clinical stage, perineural invasion, lymph node metastasis, and lower overall survival were observed. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified Mortalin as a significant independent prognostic factor, in addition to location, clinical stage, and perineural invasion, for survival of PDAC patients. Therefore, we present strong evidence that Mortalin may function as a practical marker to predict prognosis and as a potential therapeutic target in PDAC treatment.