Expression And Clinical Significance Of Lysosome-associated Membrane Protein 3 In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

【Objective】 To evaluate the expression of LAMP3 in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and analyse its correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis in HCC.【Methods】 In this study,the expression of LAMP3 in 99 cases of HCC tissues was performed by immunohistochemistry.And the relationship between expression of LAMP3 and clinicopathologic parameters of patients with HCC was analysed.In addition,the expression of LAMP3 in 20 pairs of HCC tissues and pericarcinomatous tissues was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting.【Results】 Immunohistochemical staining showed that LAMP3 was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm.And the expression of LAMP3 in HCC tissues(64/99,64.6%)was significantly lower than that in pericarcinomatous tissues(23/99,23.2%).Low expression of LAMP3 was correlated with age,alpha-fetoprotein(AFP),Edmondson grade,tumor-node-metastasis(TNM)staging(P=0.037;P=0.016;P=0.039;P=0.022),while not with sex,tumor size,tumor capsulae,cirrhosis and vascular invasion(P<0.05).The results of q RT-PCR showed that the mean of relative expression level of LAMP3 m RNA in HCC tissues was significantly lower than that in pericarcinomatous tissues(0.40 ± 0.26 and 2.06 ± 0.85;P <0.05).The results of Western blot showed that LAMP3 relative protein expression level in HCC tissues was significantly Lower than that in the pericarcinomatous tissues(0.74±0.26 and1.42±0.41;P <0.05).Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the expression ofLAMP3 was closely related to the overall survival(OS)time and disease-free survival(DFS)time(P<0.05;P<0.05).Multivariate survival analysis showed that the expression of LAMP3 was the independent predictors for overall survival and disease-free survival time of patients with HCC after surgery.(P = 0.009;P = 0.016).【 Conclusions 】 LAMP3 is low expressed in HCC tissues and closely relate to the characteristics of invasion and metastasis,and might serve as an independent prognostic predictor for HCC patients after surgical resection.