Expression Of Vanilloid Receptor VR1 And Its Significance In Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective The vanilloid receptor 1 (VR1) is a ligand-gated, non-selective cation channel expressed predominantly by sensory neurons but is also involved in carcinogenesis. To elucidate its role in hepatocarcinogenesis, we analyzed the expression of VR1 receptor in tumour and non-tumour tissues of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples.Methods Tissue samples and clinical data were obtained from 62 patients with HCC who underwent hepatectomy between 1999 and 2003 at the Department of Surgery, Xiangya 2^nd Hospital, Central South University. Prior to hepatectomy, 3 patients were treated with transarterial embolization (TAE). The expression of VR1 was assessed by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization in the study. Furthermore, the correlations between expression of VR1 and clinicopathological parameters were analyzed.Result In situ hybridization analysis showed overexpression of VR1 mRNAs in 9 of 15 (60.0%) non-cancer and 6 of 15 (40.0%) HCC samples. Immunohistochemistry of 62 HCC samples showed that marked expression of VR1 was noted in the majority [31/38 (81.6%)] of non-tumor liver samples. In HCC, high expression of VR1 was observed in 30/62 (48.4%) cases. Clinicopathological evaluation indicated a significant correlation between VR1 expression and histopathological differentiation (p=0.001). Conclusions Our results indicate that VR1 has anti-HCC progression effects and can be potentially used as a prognostic indicator of HCC.