Study On The Expression And Significance Of TGF-β/SMAD Signaling Pathway Molecule In Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective To explore the roles of TGF-β/SMAD signaling pathway in primary hepatocellular carcinoma(PHC) and its clinical significance, this thesis investigate the expression of TGFβ1,TβRⅡ,Smad4 and Smad7 mRNA,the main component of such signaling pathway,in liver tissue of patients with PHC. Methods TGFβ1,TβRⅡ,Smad4 ,Smad7 expression and its levels were assessed in matched tumorous and corresponding nontumorous liver tissue with semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reation (RT-PCR) procedure. Meanwhile,the relationship between these genes mRNA expression and clinical-pathological parameters,such as age, size and differentiation of the tumor, with or without portal vein cancer-embolus, withor without tumor diaphragm and serum AFP level et al. Results ⑴ The positive expression rate of TGFβ1 mRNA in 39 hepatocellular carcinoma tissue were significantly higher than para-cancer liver tissue (92.3% and 71.8% respectively,P<0.05). There are no difference expression rate of TβRⅡmRNA (43.6％ and 41.0％,P>0.05)between hepatocellular carcinoma tissue and para-cancer liver tissue. However, The loss of TβRⅡ both in hepatocellular carcinoma tissue and para-cancer liver tissue were higher than 50% . The positive expression rate of Smad4 mRNA in 39 hepatocellular carcinoma tissue were significantly higher than para-cancer liver tissue (94.9％ and 74.4％ respectively,P<0.05). The positive expression rate of Smad7 mRNA in 39 hepatocellular carcinoma tissue were significantly lower than para-cancer liver tissue (76.9％ and 94.9％ respectively,P<0.05).⑵There are no difference expression level of TGFβ1 mRNA and Smad7 mRNA among cases with both positive results in carcer and para-cancer tissue (P=0.327 and 0.491).The expression level of Smad4 mRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma tissue were significantly higher than para-cancer liver tissue (P=0.000). ⑶The positive expression rate of TGFRβⅡmRNA in the tumor with membrace and cancer-embolus was significantly higher than those whithout tumor diaphragm and cancer-embolus(P＝0.019 and P＝0.039). The positive expression rate of Smad4 mRNA with cancer-embolus was significantly higher than those withoutcancer-embolus(P＝0.031). However, The positive expression rate of Smad7 mRNA with cancer-embolus was significantly lower than non-cancer-embolus type(P＝0.034). No statistical correlation between expression change of TGF-β/SMAD molecule and patient's age, size and differentiation of the tumor, AFP level of the patient's serum and HBsAg were found (P>0.05).Concludes The mRNA expression of TGFβ1,TβRⅡ,Smad4, Smad7 were signifant different between cancer and corresponding para-caner liver tissue from patients with PHC . Furthermore, their expression has strong relationship with the important clinical indexs of PHC. All above indicated that TGF-β/SMAD signaling pathway may have important roles in the pathogenesis of PHC. It may be a helpful way for measuring prognosis for PHC to analysis the change of such componets of the signaling pathway.