The Role Of Hepatic Stellate Cell In Angiogenesis Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma And The Clinic Significance

Objective: To evaluate the correlation between the expression of hepatic stellate cells(HSCs) and angiogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and analyze therelationship between HSCs and clinical/pathological factors and the prognosis.Methods: Fifty cases of HCC were randomized collected from the database ofHepatobiliary Department of1st Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from2010.01-2012.12. For each case, cancerous tissue paired with pericancerous tissue werecollected, while8cases of normal liver tissue as negative control.Immunohistochemistry (S-P) method was performed to detect the expression of α-SMA,VEGF and CD34.Correlation between α-SMA and angiogenesis of HCC as well asclinical/pathological factors and prognosis was analyzed. Data was analyzed by SPSS10.0software.Results: Compared with pericancerous tissue and normal control group, expression ofα-SMA, VEGF and CD34were higher in HCC tissue. The expression of α-SMA wassignificantly correlated with VEGF and MVD. According to α-SMA expression in HCCtissue，the clinical/pathological indexes of cancer embolus, lymph-metastasis, tumorenvelope and the tumor differentiation were statistically correlated with α-SMA. Theexpression of α-SMA was associated with cumulated survival, while not in tumor-freesurvival.Conclusions：(1) HSC is associated with the development of HCC；(2) HSC plays animportant role in angiogenesis of HCC；(3) HSC expression can be used as a predictorindex of biological behavior and prognosis of HCC.