目的：探究母胚亮氨酸拉链激酶（MELK）在胰腺癌组织中的表达、功能及临床意义。方法：通过生物信息学方法分 析MELK 在胰腺癌中的表达情况并预测MELK 在影响胰腺癌发生发展中可能的分子机制。回顾性分析45 例在兰州大学第一医 院接受手术治疗的胰腺癌患者的临床资料，采用免疫组化法检测胰腺癌组织和癌旁正常组织中的MELK 表达水平，分析其与患 者临床病理特征的关系；通过门诊就诊记录及电话随访收集患者的术后复发时间，探究MELK 表达与术后复发时间的关系。结 果：MELK 的mRNA 在胰腺癌组织中呈高表达并与患者总生存率和术后复发时间相关；多因素Cox 分析结果表明MELK 基因可 作为胰腺癌患者的独立预后因素。功能分析表明MELK 参与多个癌症相关功能通路，与胰腺癌致病分子正相关。免疫组化结果 表明，MELK 在胰腺癌组织中的表达明显高于癌旁正常组织。MELK 在胰腺癌组织中的表达与肿瘤大小相关。结论：胰腺癌组 织中MELK 基因呈高表达且和预后相关，MELK 在胰腺癌的进展中发挥作用，有望成为胰腺癌诊治的潜在生物标记物和治疗靶点。

Objective: To investigate the expression, function and clinical significance of maternal leucine zipper kinase (MELK) in pancreatic cancer. Methods: The expression of MELK in pancreatic cancer was analyzed and the possible molecular mechanism of MELK in pancreatic cancer was predicted by bioinformatics. The clinical data of 45 patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing surgical treatment in the First Hospital of Lanzhou University were retrospectively analyzed. Immunohistochemistry was used to explore the MELK expression levels in pancreatic cancer tissues and normal para-cancerous tissues, and its relationship with clinical pathological characteristics was also analyzed. The postoperative recurrence time of patients was collected through outpatient records and telephone follow-up to explore the relationship between MELK expression and postoperative recurrence time. Results: MELK mRNA was highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues and correlated with the overall survival rate and postoperative recurrence time. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that the MELK gene could be used as an independent prognostic factor in patients with pancreatic cancer. Functional enrichment suggests that MELK is involved in multiple cancer-related functional pathways and is positively correlated with the pathogenic molecules of pancreatic cancer. Immunohistochemistry results showed that MELK in pancreatic cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues. The expression of MELK in pancreatic cancer tissues was correlated with tumor size. Conclusion: The MELK gene is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues and is associated with patients’prognosis. MELK plays a role in the progression of pancreatic cancer and is expected to become a potential biomarker and therapeutic target of pancreatic cancer.

甘肃省中医药科研课题（No. GZKP-2020-28）；兰州市 城关区科技计划项目（No. 2020-2-11-4）