BACKGROUND: Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common intraocular malignancy, and the prognosis of patients with advanced stage of UM is very dismal. The T cell receptor ectopic expression of butyrophilin-like 9 (BTNL9) has been observed in several types of cancers, but the expression and clinical significance of BTNL9 in UM is unclear.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: In our study, we detected the expression of BTNL9 in 6 pairs of UM tissues and adjacent tissues using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and further investigated BTNL9 expression with immunohistochemistry (IHC) in a retrospective cohort consisted of 62 UM patients. The correlations between BNTL9 expression and clinicopathological factors were analyzed with Fisher’s test, and the prognostic significance of BTNL9 was evaluated with univariate analysis and multivariate analysis. Using experiments in vitro, we investigated the function of BTNL9 in UM proliferation and invasion.

RESULTS: BTNL9 mRNAs in adjacent tissues were remarkably higher than in UM tissues. The percentages of BTNL9 low expression and high expression were 56.45% and 43.55%, respectively. High expression of BTNL9 was significantly associated with favorable prognosis of UM. BTNL9 expression was identified as a prognostic biomarker predicting better outcome of UM patients. Moreover, BTNL9 could suppress invasion instead of proliferation in melanoma cell line.

CONCLUSIONS: BTNL9 was a favorable prognostic factor of UM and it could suppress invasion of UM, suggesting that BTNL9 detection could help stratify high-risk patients with UM after operation and guide more precise surveillance and treatment.

Keywords: Genes, T-Cell Receptor delta, Melanoma, Biomarkers, Tumor, Butyrophilins, Immunohistochemistry, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Uveal Neoplasms