Expression and significance of calreticulin in human osteosarcoma

BACKGROUND: As one of the endoplasmic reticulum proteins, calreticulin (CRT) plays a significant role in the body, and it has been used by many researchers as a target for anti-tumor therapy. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of the present study was to study expression of CRT of human osteosarcoma, and analyze the distinctions between normal and tumor tissues, pre- and post-chemotherapy patients, and metastatic and non-metastatic tumors in respect to this expression. METHODS: Immunofluorescent staining was used in order to investigate expression of CRT in diverse tissues. The whole RNA and proteins were extracted from the crushed tissues and used in the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting analysis. RESULTS: The present study detected expression of CRT in patients with osteosarcoma and revealed a higher expression level in normal tissues surrounding tumors compared with tumor tissues, in the non-metastasis group compared with the metastasis group, and in the chemotherapy group compared with the non-chemotherapy group. CONCLUSIONS: These results could indicate a brand-new biological marker which may be applied to estimate the features and prognosis of osteosarcoma.