Fatty acid binding protein 7 may be a marker and therapeutic targets in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract Background To identify potential therapeutic target in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), we performed a transcriptome analysis. Our analysis showed that fatty acid binding protein 7 (FABP7) has the highest mean differential overexpression in ccRCC compared to normal kidney. We aimed to investigate the significance of FABP7 in ccRCC. Methods Immunohistochemical staining for 40 advanced ccRCC cases was performed to investigate correlation between clinicopathological parameters and FABP7. They were composed of 40–83 years old cases with 33 male, 22 cases with pT ≥ 3, 19 cases with M1, and 16 cases with grade 3. The effect of gene knockdown was analysed by a cell viability assay and invasion assay in FABP7-overexpressing cell lines (SKRC7 and SKRC10). Results Our immunohistochemical analysis showed that higher FABP7 expression significantly correlated with distant metastasis and poor cancer-specific survival (CSS; both p