Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) composed of
connexin proteins is considered vital to
cancer onset and progression since 50 years ago based on Lowenstein and Kano's works, however altered expression of
connexins is still a lesser known "hallmark" of
cancer. Although many studies support the hypothesis that
connexins are
tumor suppressors, recent evidence indicates that, in some
tumor types including
glioma, they may play contradictory role in some specific stages of
tumor progression. We thus conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic role of
Cx43 in
glioma for the unanswered questions that whether
Cx43 is a beneficial or insalubrity factor for
glioma. Eight studies with 1,706 patients were included for meta-analysis. The results showed that
Cx43 expression was a clearly negative factor with
tumor grades (I 2 = 34%, P < 0.001) and beneficial for OS (n = 3, HR 2.62, 95%CI 1.47-4.68; P = 0.001). Subgroup analysis also found that
Cx43 had different expression in Asian young patients vs. other groups. In conclusion, this article summarize the prognostic value of
Cx43 and offer a clinical evidence for the notion that
Cx43 is generally a
tumor suppressor and beneficial for the patients' survival time.