Expression Of Iron Deposition And Ferroportin In The Liver Cancer Patients

Objective Ferroportin(FPN)is an important regulator of membrane iron transport in the process of iron metabolism in vivo,which is involved in the occurrence and development of many kinds of tumors.In this study,we found the disorder of iron metabolism in liver cancer patients,and then detected the expression level of FPN in patients and liver cancer cells to study the role of FPN in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods 1.58 paraffin samples of liver tissue were collected and sectioned.Prussian blue iron staining was used to analyze the iron deposition of liver tissue.2.Immunohistochemical staining was used to analyze the expression of FPN in 44 liver cancer tissues and 14 benign liver lesions.Then,the clinical data of hepatocellular carcinoma and benign liver lesions were collected to analyze the possible clinical correlation between FPN expression and hepatocellular carcinoma.3.In total of 169 peripheral blood samples were collected,including 80 liver cancer patients,48 chronic hepatitis b patients and 41 healthy subjects.FPN level in venous serum was detected by ELISA,and the differences in ALT,AST,TBIL,AFP,HBV-DNA and Hb were analyzed.4.Western blot(WB)was used to detect the expression of FPN in normal liver cell line LO2 and hepatoma cell line Hep G2、Huh7 and SMMC-7211.Results 1.Prussian blue iron staining showed that the deposition of blue ferricyanide in liver tissue of HCC patients was higher than that in liver tissue of patients with benign liver disease,suggesting that the disorder of iron deposition in liver appeared in HCC patients.2.Immunohistochemical staining showed that the expression of FPN in liver cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in benign liver lesions(P<0.05),and the expression of FPN in vivo had a significant difference with tumor staging T and lymph node metastasis(P<0.05),but no significant difference with distant metastasis,age,gender and other factors of the patients,with no statistically significant difference.3.The results of ELISA showed that there was no significant difference in FPN expression between the healthy group and the chronic hepatitis B group(P > 0.05),but the FPN expression in the liver cancer group was significantly higher than that in the healthy group(P < 0.001)and the chronic hepatitis B group(P < 0.05),and the FPN expression was positively correlated with the child Pugh grade of liver cancer,the stage and distant metastasis of BCLC liver cancer(P < 0.05)The number of nodules was not correlated(P > 0.05)in the liver cancer group.4.In the biochemical indexes,ALT,AST,TBIL,Hb and FPN were found to be different among the three groups(P < 0.05).ALT,AST,TBIL and FPN were significantly higher and Hb was significantly lower in liver cancer group(P < 0.05).AST,TBIL,AFP and FPN were significantly higher in liver cancer group(P < 0.05),Hb was significantly lower(P < 0.05)and HBV-DNA was no difference(P > 0.05).5.WB results showed that FPN expression in Hep G2,Huh7 and SMMC-7211 cells was higher than that in LO2 cells(P < 0.05),and there was no difference in FPN expression among the three different hepatoma cell lines(P > 0.05).Conclusion In HCC patients,iron deposition was found in liver tissue,and FPN was highly expressed in tissues,peripheral blood and cells,indicating that FPN may promote the development of HCC by participating in the disorder of iron metabolism.