Expression Of HBx Protein And The Factors Correlated To The P38MAPK Pathway In Human

Objective: To investigate the expression of HBx protein and the factors Cdc25B,CyclinB1,p34cdc2 which are correlated to the p38MAPK pathway in human hepatocarcinogenesis.Methods: Expression of HBx,p38MAPK,Cdc25B,CyclinB1,p34cdc2 was detected in the tissues of nomal liver, chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, paratumor cirrhosis and HCC (86 samples, totally) by s-p immunohistochemistry. All data were processed by SPSS 11.5 version in the computer.Results: HBx was localized in nuclear of chronic hepatitis and HCC. The expression of HBx in HCC was stronger than that in nomal liver and paratumor cirrhosis (p＜0.05), however the expression of HBx in chronic hepatitis was stronger than that in other three groups(p＜0.05). P38MAPK and Cdc25B was localized in cytoplasm and/or nuclear. The expression of p38MAPK and Cdc25B was the highest in HCC and the positive rates of them in paratumor cirrhosis was just lower than that in HCC.The expression of p38MAPK and Cdc25B in HCC and paratumor cirrhosis showed significant difference compared with normal liver(p＜0.05). CyclinB₁ protein was localized in cytoplasm and nuclear and p34cdc2 protein was localized in nuclear. There was overexpression of CyclinB₁ and p34cdc2 in HCC and the expression showed significant difference between HCC and normal liver(p＜0.05). The expression of p38MAPK,Cdc25B,CyclinB₁ and p34cdc2 gradually increased from normal liver,chronic hepatitis,liver cirrhosis,paratumor cirrhosis to HCC and the expression between liver cirrhosis and paratumor cirrhosis showed significant difference (p＜0.05). Significant positive correlation was found between the expression of HBx and p38MAPK and the expression of CyclinB₁ and p34cdc2 in HCC.Conclusions: The p38MAPK signal transduction pathway could be activated by HBx protein so that cell cycle checkpoint of G2/M activated. The expression of Cdc25B,CyclinB1,p34cdc2 increaced and abnormal cells multiplicated out of the way. The p38MAPK signal transduction pathway activated by HBx may play a key role in human hepatocarcinogenesis. For the first time we found the positive rates of p38MAPK,Cdc25B,yclinB₁ and p34cdc2 were different between liver cirrhosis and paratumor cirrhosis which indicates that their characteristics maybe different.