Expression Of TFF3, VEGF And Its Relation With Angiogenesis In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular Carcinoma(HCC) is people's common malignant tumor. Though the therapy metheds including surgical operation, radiotherapy,chemotherapy and immunotherapy are becoming developed,the death rate has not been decreased obviously for its high rate of relapse and distant metastasis. Therefore,we should find the genes or cytokines that related to the biological behaviour of HCC, to provide a new valid method for the early diagnosis and therapy of HCC.Trefoil factor3(TFF3) is a member of trefoil factor family.It play a important role in mucosal restitution,apoptosis,and tumor progression. Recently,TFF3 expression has been demonstrated that it is related to carcinoangiogenesis ,but there are limited data regarding its expression in HCC.Carcinoangiogenesis is closely related to tumorgenesis and malignant progress. VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) is one of the most stonge and specific growth factors as knowen. Its high or low expression can influence the growth, invasion and metastasis of tumor.ObjectiveIn this study, The immunohistochemical SP method was used to determine the expression of TFF3 and VEGF in HCC and nomorl hepatic tissues to explor the relationship between expression of TFF3,VEGF and tumor progress.Materials and metheds60 consecutive paraffin-embedded cases of HCC were studied. No patien had received chemotherapy,radiotherapy and interventional therapy et al. 10 nomorl hepatic tissues were used as negative controls. using polyclonal antibody anti- TFF3 and monoclonal antibody anti- VEGF, immunohistochemistry staining(sp methed) were performed. Microvessel density(MVD) of HCC was also examined with anti-CD34. Expression of TFF3 and VEGF and the relationship whit MVD were measured.Results1. The expression of TFF3 was85 % (51/60 ) in the HCC group and negative in the control group. We observed that there was significance difference between two groups (P<0.01 ) .The expression among different differentiated degree groups were significance different (P<0.05) .But there was no correlation among age,sex,size of tumor and having capsule or not. In further comparing, there are differences between well-differentiated group and moderately differentiated group (P>0.0166) , as well as between well-differentiated group and poorly differentiated group (P<0.0166) .But there was no difference between moderately differentiated group and poorly differentiated group (P>0.0166) .2. The expression of VEGF was 75.0% (45/60) in the HCC group and 20.0% (2/10) in the control group. There are difference between the two groups (P<0.05 ) .But there was no difference among the there differentiated degree groups.3. The counting of MVD in poorly differentiated group , moderately differentiated group, well-differentiated group and control group wre 38.64±5.02, 37.13±6.40, 26.08±6.57, 13.17±3.27. We found that there was significance difference between every two groups of the three differentiated degree groups (P<0.01) except that between the poorly differentiated group and the moderately differentiated group(P=0.461). The levels of MVD in poorly differentiated group, moderately differentiated group was higher than well-differentiated group, control group4. There was positive correlation between the expression of TFF3 and VEGF(P<0.05). The counting of MVD in TFF3 group was 39.98±7.15, and 42.53±6.06 in VEGF group, and no statistically difference was seen between the two groups. Our study showed there was positive correlation between TFF3 ,VEGF and MVD (P<0.05) . Conclusions1. The expression of TFF3 in HCC correlates with the differentiated degree of HCC. Its expression level in poorly differentiated group is higher than that in well differentiated group.2. There was abnormally high expression of TFF3 and VEGF in HCC,and there was a positive correlation of TFF3 and VEGF expression3. We observed that there was positive correlation between the counting of MVD and expression degree of TFF3 , VEGF, which suggest that the angiogenesis in tumour correlated with TFF3 , VEGF. TFF3 and VEGF may be a important indexes of HCC progress and metastasis.