Significance and relationship between infiltrating inflammatory cell and tumor angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues

AIM: To investigate the relationship between infiltrating inflammatory cell and tumor angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and their clinicopathological features.METHODS: The paraffin-embedded specimens from 70 cases with HCC were stained using EliVision immunohistochemistry with mAbs against CD68, tryptase,and CD34. The counts of tumor-associated macrophage (TAM), mast cell (MC) and tumor microvessel (MV) were performed in the tissue sections.RESULTS: The mean counts of TAM, MC, and MV in HCC tissues were significantly higher than those in pericarcinomatous liver tissues (TAM: 69.31± 11.58 vs 40.23±10.36; MC: 16.74±5.67 vs 7.59±4.18; MV:70.11±12.45 vs 38.52± 11.16, P＜0.01). The MV count in the patients with metastasis was markedly higher than that with non-metastasis (P＜0.01). In addition, the MC count in the patients with poorly differentiated HCC was obviously higher than that with well differentiated HCC (P＜ 0.01). The correlation analysis showed that the TAM count was significantly correlated with the count of MV(r=0.712, P＜0.01), and the MC count was obviously correlated with the MV count (r= 0.336, P＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: TAM and MC might be closely related to the enhancement of tumor angiogenesis. The MV count might be associated with tumor invasion and metastasis.Moreover, the MC count might be associated with tumor differentiation and prognosis of HCC.

Detection of STAT2 in early stage of cervical premalignancy and in cervical cancer

Objective:To measure the expression pattern of STAT2 in cenical cancer initiation and progression in tissue sections from patients with cervicitis,dysplasia,and cenical cancer. Methods:Antibody against human STAT2 was confirmed by plasmids transient transfection and Western blot Immunohistochemistry was used to delect STAT2 expression in the cervical biopsies by using the confirmed antibody against STAT2 as the primary antibody.Results:It was found that the overall rate of positive STAT2 expression in the cervicitis,dysplasia and cenical cancer groups were 38.5%,69.49%and 76.991,respectively.The STAT2 levels are significantly increased in premalignant dysplasia and cervical cancer,as compared lo cervicitis(P【 0.05). Noticeably,STAT2 signals were mainly found in the cytoplasm,implying that STAT2 was not biologically active.Conclusions:These findings reveal an association between cenical cancer progression and augmented STAT2 expression.In conclusion.STAT2 increase appears to be an early detectable cellular event in cenical cancer development.

Specific activation of 2'-5'oligoadenylate synthetase gene promoter by hepatitis C virus-core protein:A potential for developing hepatitis C virus targeting gene therapy

AIM:To examine whether 2'-5'oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) gene promoter can be specifically activated by hepatitis C virus (HCV)-core protein.METHODS: Human embryo hepatic cell line L02 wa transfected with pcDNA3.1-core plasmid and selected by G418. Expression of HCV-core was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. The OAS promoter sequence wa amplified from the genomic DNA and inserted into pGL3-basic vector. The resultant pGL3-OAS-Luc plasmid was transiently transfected into L02/core cell and luciferase activity was assayed. RESULTS: L02/core cell line stably expressing HCV core protein was established. The pGL3-OAS-Luc construct exhibited significant transcriptional activity in the L02/core cells but not in the L02 cells.CONCLUSION: HCV-core protein activates the OAS gene promoter specifically and effectively. Utilization of OAS gene promoter would be an ideal strategy for developing HCV-specific gene therapy.