Correlation And Expression Of Skp2, C-myc And P27 Proteins In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of Skp2 ,C-myc and P27 protein in normal liver tissues,liver cirrhosis tissues as well as hepatocellular carcinoma and their relationship with clinicopathologic characters. and investigate the correlations among Skp2 ,C-myc and P27 protein, which can build a strong basis for further explore the origination and development mechanism of hepatocellular carcinoma at the molecular level and find a novel target point for biology therapy of heaptocellular carcinoma.METHODS The expression of Skp2, C-myc and P27 protein were evaluated in 48 human hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, 20 liver cirrhosis tissues as well as 16 normal liver tissues using immunohistochemistry (PV-9000 two steps methods).RESULTS The expression rate of Skp2 protein(33.3%) in hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly higher than that in liver cirrhosis tissues(negative expression)( P<0.01)and normal liver tissues(negative expression)( P <0.05).The expression of Skp2 protein was correlated with histological differentiation and metastasis(P<0.01 and P<0.05),but not with tumour size(P > 0.05). The expression rate of C-myc protein in hepatocellular carcinoma (58.3%) was significantly higher than that in liver cirrhosis tissues (15%) (P<0.01) and normal tissues (negative expression) (P<0.01). The expression of C-myc protein was correlated with histological differentiation (P<0.01), metastasis (P<0.05), tumour size (P<0.01).The expression of Skp2 protein was positively correlated with the expression of C-myc (r=0.508, P < 0.01) and the expression of SKP2 was negatively correlated with the expression of P27(r=-0.562, P<0.01)CONCLUSIONS The higher expression of C-myc protein and Skp2 protein as well as the lower expression of P27 are closely related to the origination and development of hepatocellular carcinoma and indicate the poor prognosis.The Skp2 may be chosen to be a novel target point to treat hepatocellular carcinoma. The C-myc interacts with Skp2 in hepatocellular, the Skp2 was found to act as a positive cofactor for C-myc regulated transcription, and the expression of Skp2 in hepatocellular carcinoma may be positively controlled by the activation of C-myc gene and control the degeneration of P27 protein, which may led to the initiation and development of hepatocellular carcinoma.