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Introduction
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common malignancies of the urinary system and accounts for 2-3% of adult malignant neoplasms, ~80% of which are clear cell RCC (ccRCC) (1). Despite significant progress in the systematic therapy of this type of tumor, the reduction of mortality remains an arduous task, with challenges such as a lack of clinically available biomarkers, and insufficient understanding of the underlying molecular mechanism of ccRCC (2-4). Therefore, it is evident that a better understanding of potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers of ccRCC will facilitate the improvement of survival in patients with ccRCC.
The β-thymosin family primarily consists of thymosin β4 (TMSB4), TMSB15 and TMSB10, which perform a vital function as actin-binding proteins to control the cytoskeletal microfilament system (5). Efforts have been made to investigate the biological roles of β-thymosin; β-thymosin is shown to exhibit various physiological roles, including tissue regeneration, inflammatory regulation and central nervous development (6). Notably, β-thymosin has been found to be involved in tumorigenesis and tumor progression (7). For instance, TMSB4 exhibits oncogenic functions in various types of cancer, including colorectal cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer (8-14). Furthermore, TMSB15 can act as a potential biomarker for prostate cancer progression (15). However, opinion is still divided over whether TMSB10 plays a tumor-suppressive or oncogenic role. In papillary thyroid carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, it is reported that TMSB10 is upregulated, and that overexpression of TMSB10 predicts poor outcome and promotes cancer progression (16-20). By contrast, in ovarian cancer and cholangiocarcinoma, overexpression of TMSB10 induces apoptosis and reduces tumor proliferation (21,22). To the best of our knowledge, the functional role and clinical significance of TMSB10 in ccRCC remains poorly understood.
In the present study, the aim was to investigate the association between the expression of TMSB10 and the clinical characteristics of patients with ccRCC. Additionally, a functional analysis of TMSB10 in ccRCC was performed in vitro.
Materials and methods
Screening the differentially expressed genes and candidate genes associated with survival
In this study, the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) microarray datasets GSE40435, GSE53000, GSE53757, GSE105261 and GSE15641 were included for further analysis (23-27). The online tool GEO2R (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) was used to detect the differentially expressed genes between normal kidney...