AccScience Publishing / EJMO / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/EJMO025080034
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Increased angiopoietin-like protein 8 expression in colorectal carcinoma patients with liver metastasis

Hendra Susanto1* Adeodatus Yuda Handaya2 Arum Linangkung2 Wira Eka Putra1 Zulqarnain Mohamed3 Jerry Dwi Trijoyo Purnomo4 Moch Sholeh5 Sa’diyatul Rizqie Amaliyah Firdaus5
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1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, East Java, Indonesia
2 Digestive Surgery Division, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
4 Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science and Data Analytics, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia
5 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, East Java, Indonesia
Received: 18 February 2025 | Revised: 23 April 2025 | Accepted: 24 April 2025 | Published online: 9 May 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in men and the second most common in women, with a 5-year survival rate. The disease burden of CRC can be exacerbated by a sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical exercise, smoking, and obesity. Angiopoietin-like protein 8 (ANGPTL8), a liver hormone, plays a crucial role in lipid and glucose metabolism and is also implicated in the development of certain cancers. However, the basic profile and activity of this hormone in CRC with liver metastasis remains unknown. This study aims to establish the baseline expression of ANGPTL8 in tumors of CRC patients with and without liver metastasis. After histopathological screening and computed tomography scans, 41 patients were identified and included in this study, consisting of 20 CRC patients without liver metastasis and 21 with liver metastasis. Tumor samples from each group were compared to their respective adjacent normal tissues. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were employed to assess the ANGPTL8 expression at both mRNA and protein levels. The results show that ANGPTL8 expression is higher in tumors of CRC patients with liver metastasis compared to those without liver metastasis. ANGPTL8 expression is significantly correlated with body mass index (BMI) (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = −0.367, p≤0.05) and could serve as a significant predictor of BMI (p≤0.05). These findings suggest that ANGPTL8 may enhance tumor development in CRC patients and is associated with body weight changes, contributing to weight loss symptoms during metastasis.

Keywords
ANGPTL8
Body weight loss
Colorectal cancer
Liver metastasis
Funding
This study was supported by the 2024 Universitas Negeri Malang PNBP research grant (Contract number: 4.4.602/ UN32.14.1/LT/2024).
Conflict of interest
There was no conflict of interest among all authors in this study.
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Eurasian Journal of Medicine and Oncology, Electronic ISSN: 2587-196X Print ISSN: 2587-2400, Published by AccScience Publishing