Expressions Of Chemokine CCL22and Its Receptor CCR4and The Clinical Significance In Hapetocellular Carcinoma

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma is one of the digestive cancers having the highestmalignant degree and metastasis rate. With the rise in the incidence of chronichepatitis and liver cirrhosis, liver cancer incidence also showed a trend of increaseyear by year, Relapse and metastasis are the main causes for failure of treatmenteffect. Chemokines is the group of cytokines that control cell directional movement.All of these biological effects are performed by binding of ligands to Chemokinereceptors. Depending on the relative location of cysteine, chemokines can be dividedinto four classes: C, CC, CXC and CX3C. CCL22is a macrophage derived factor andits receptor is chemokine receptor4(CCR4). Recent data indicated that CCL22binding with its receptor CCR4leads to cell growth and promotes apoptosisinflammation and allergic reactions. Various tumor cells expressed chemotactic factorCCL22and its receptor CCR4, which was closely related to tumor metastasis,angiogenesis, improving organism immunity and inducing tumor cell proliferation, apoptosis. Thus speculate CCL22combined with CCR4specificity may be themolecular mechanism of tumor growth and metastasis of liver cancer plays animportant role.Objective：By detecting chemokine CCL22and its receptor CCR4expression betweenhepatocellular carcinoma, adjacent tissues and normal liver tissues, the study is toanalyze the relationship between CCL22and CCR4protein expression andclinicopathological features, discuss its expression in hepatocellular carcinomaoccurrence and development role, and evaluate its value in hepatocellular carcinomaprognosis, which may provide new ideas for the study of liver cancer.Methods:By immunohistochemical SP in paraffin section specimen, expression of CCL22and CCR4were detected in60cases of hepatocellular carcinoma,46cases of theadjacent tissues and30cases of normal liver tissue. And then we ananlyzed therelationship between CCL22and CCR4protein expression and clinical pathologicfeatures.Results:Neither CCL22nor CCR4was expressed in normal liver tissue and the positiverate of CCL22protein was19.6%(9/46) and CCR4was28.2%(13/46) in theadjacent tissues. In hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, the positive rate of CCL22was56.7%(34/60) and CCR4was88.3%(53/60). The positive rate of CCL22and CCR4protein expression were statistically significant between epatocellular carcinoma,carcinoma of adjacent tissues and normal liver tissues(P<0.05).There was nosignificant relationship between CCL22and CCR4protein expression and gender,age, tumor size, ascites, etc. Tumor metastasis and pipeline violation had no relationwith CCL22but they do have a relation with CCR4(P<0.05).Spearman rankcorrelation analysis showed that CCL22and CCR4protein expression was positivelycorrelated (r=0.297, P <0.05).Conclusion:1. CCL22and CCR4had a high expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma butlow in carcinoma of adjacent tissues and normal liver tissues. CCL22and CCR4 protein expression were positively correlated.2. The expression of CCR4protein in hepatocellular carcinoma is related to theirhistological differentiation and invasive capacity. By inhibiting the expression ofCCR4protein may reduces liver cancer growth, invasion and metastasis ability toimprove the survival rate of liver cancer patients. The study of CCL22and CCR4may provide new ideas for the treatment of liver cancer.