GP73Expression Level And Its Association With Ciinicopathologic Features In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background：Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most commonmalignant tumors and has a poor prognosis, mainly because of diagnosis at alate stage and/or recurrence of the disease. It imposes high social and medicalburdens. The prognosis can be significantly improved by early diagnosis andtreatment. Therefore, surveillance strategies, used to screen for early detectionare needed. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is so far the only serological markeravailable, but its diagnostic accuracy is unsatisfactory. In recent years, Golgiprotein73(GP73), hypothesized to be a complementary serum marker for HCC,in particular has been extensively evaluated. The majority of relevant studieshave investigated GP73expression was significantly elevated in HCC atimmunohistochemistry level，which was associated with aggressive tumorbehaviors of HCC. However, there were few researches on GP73expression atboth mRNA and protein levels in HCC tumors, adjacent liver tissues andnormal liver tissues, and the correlation between its expression pattern andpatients，clinicopathologic parameters. Further studies should be performed byprospective validation in carefully designed randomized clinical trials usingstandardized protocols in a larger cohort.Objective：To investigate the expression and significance of GP73in HCCtissue.Methods：RT-PCR and Western blot were used to determine the expressionand distribution of GP73in HCC tumors and adjacent liver tissues from20HCC patients and those normal liver tissues from10hepatic hemangiomapatients. The correlation between the GP73expression and clinicopathologicfeatures was statistically analyzed. Results： The mRNA expressions of GP73and their proteins weresignificantly higher than those in adjacent tissues and normal tissues(1.25士0.17、0.62±0.06、0.46±0.03与2.20±0.26、0.87±0.07、0.26±0.04)(P <0.05).The mRNA levels of GP73and their protein levels were significantlyassociated with tumor differentiation and vein invasion of HCC (P<0.05).However there was not a significant correlation with such clinicopathologicfeatures as age, gender, size of tumor, tumor nodules and AFP levels (P>0.05).Conclusion: GP73expressions were significantly elevated in HCC at bothprotein and mRNA levels as compared with adjacent tissues and normal tissues.Therefore, GP73may serve as a potential marker to evaluate the invasiveability of HCC.