Expression Of SphKs In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC）is one of the most common malignant tumors.The incidence of HCC in China is high,since more than half of the cases occur in this country.The prognosis of HCC is still unsatisfied,although some important progresses have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of HCC recently.Therefore,it is needed to investigate the HCC further and explore new methods of diagnosis and treatment.Sph Ks including Sph K1 and Sph K2,are the key enzymes in the sphingolipid pathway that convert sphingosine（Sph）to sphingosine-1-phosphate（S1P）by phosphorylation.Specifically Sph promotes cell growth arrest and apoptosis in cancer.Meanwhile S1 P promotes cancer cell proliferation,invasion and migration.At present,the relationship between Sph Ks and HCC is still unknown.This research will investigate the relationship between Sph Ks and HCC using human HCC samples.The expression of Sph Ks in cancer and adjacent tissues will be detected;the association between the expression of Sph Ks and clinicopathological features of HCC patients will be analyzed.Methods: First,the expression levels of Sph Ks m RNA in cancer and adjacent tissues from 22 HCC patients were detected by q RT-PCR.Subsequently,immunohistochemistry were performed using tissue microarrays from 150 HCC samples to detect the expression levels of Sph Ks proteins.And then the relationships between the expression level of Sph Ks and the clinicopathological features of HCC patients were analyzed.Results: 1.The expression levels of Sph Ks m RNA in HCC tissues were relatively lower than that in para cancer tissues.2.Immunohistochemistry results showed that Sph Ks proteins were mainly localized in the cytoplasm and were relatively high in adjacent tissues,while cancer tissues showed relatively low expression of Sph Ks proteins.3.The protein level of Sph K1 in HCC tissues is associated with portal vein thrombosis,pathological grade,and TNM staging of HCC;the expression level of Sph K2 in HCC tissues is associated with the TNM stage of HCC.Conclusions: 1.Sph Ks are relatively low in HCC tissues compared with adjacent tissues.2.The protein level of Sph K1 in HCC tissues is associated with portal vein thrombosis,pathological grade,and TNM staging of HCC.3.The expression level of Sph K2 in HCC tissues is associated with the TNM stage of HCC.