Expression and significance of tumor-related genes in HCC

AIM: To investigate the e xpression and clinical significance of DEK, cyclin D1, insulin-like growth factor Ⅱ (IGF-Ⅱ),glypican 3 (GPC3), ribosomal phosphoprotein 0 (rpP0) mRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its paraneoplastic tissues.METHODS: The expression of mRNAs of DEK, cyclin D1,IGF-Ⅱ, GPC3 and rpP0 mRNA was detected in HCC and its paraneoplastic tissues by multiplex RT-PCR.RESULTS: By the simplex RT-PCR, the overexpression of mRNAs of DEK, cyclin D1, IGF-Ⅱ, GPC3, rpP0 mRNA in HCC and its paraneoplastic tissues was 78.1%, 87.5%,87.5%, 75.0%, 81.3% and 15.6%, 40.6%, 37.5%, 21.9%,31.3% respectively (P＜0.05). By the multiplex RT-PCR,at least one of the mRNAs was detected in all HCC samples and in 75.0% of paraneoplastic samples (P＞0.05). However,all these five mRNAs were found in 68.8% of HCC samples,but only in 9.4% of paraneoplastic tissues (P＜0.05). The positive expression of mRNAs of DEK, cyclin D1, IGF-Ⅱ,GPC3, rpP0 in well- and poorly-differentiated HCC was 89.0%, 66.7%, 66.7%, 66.7%, 77.8% and 73.9%, 95.7%,95.7%, 95.7%, 82.6%, respectively (P＞0.05). The expression of these genes in HCCs with α-feto protein (AFP) negative and positive was 90.0%, 80.0%, 90.0%, 90.0%, 90.0% and 72.7%, 86.3%, 77.3%, 90.9%, 68.2% respectively (P＞0.05).CONCLUSION: The expression of DEK,, cyclin D1, IGF-Ⅱ,GPC3, rpP0 mRNA in HCC is much higher in HCC than in its paraneoplastic tissues. Multiplex RT-PCR assay is an effective, sensitive, accurate, and cost-effective diagnostic method of HCC.

Oncogenic role of clusterin overexpression in multistage colorectal tumorigenesis and progression

AIM: To investigate the expression pattern of clusterin in colorectal adenoma-carcinoma-metastasis series, and to explore the potential role of dusterin in multistage colorectal tumorigenesis and progression.METHOD:S: A colorectal carcinoma (CRC)-tissue microarray (TMA), which contained 85 advanced CRCs including 43 cases of Dukes B, 21 of Dukes C and 21 of Dukes D tumors, were used for assessing the expression of clusterin (clone 41D) and tumor cell apoptotic index (AI) by immunohistochemistry and TUNEL assay, respectively. Moreover the potential correlation of dusterin expression with the patient'sclinical-pathological features were also examined. RESULTS: The positive staining of clusterin in different colorectal tissues was primarily a cytoplasmic pattern. Cytoplasmic overexpression of clusterin was detected in none of the normal coloredal mucosa, 17% of the adenomas, 46% of the primary CRCs, and 57% of the CRC metastatic lesions. In addition, a significant positive correlation between overexpression of clusterin and advanced clinical (Dukes) stage was observed (P＜0.01). Overexpression of cytoplasmic clusterin in CRCs was inversely correlated with tumor apoptotic index (P＜0.01), indicating the anti apoptotic function of cytoplasmic clusterin in CRCs.CONCLUSION: These data suggests that overexpression of cytoplasmic dustin might be involved in the tumorigenesis and/or progression of CRCs. The anti-apoptotic function of cytoplasmic dusterin may be responsible, at least in part, for the development and biologically aggressive behavior of CRC.