| Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with the pathological characteristic of high aggression, early metastasis, and tendency to recurrence and poor prognosis is one of the commonest malignant tumours. The metastasis and recurrence are a complicated process with multi-steps and also the major factors to affect the treatment results. They have a close relationship with the angiogenesis ot tumors. Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), a kind of inhibitors of angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth, metastasis of HCC. The malignant degree and prognosis of tunours can be estimated by detecting TSP-1. However, the expression of TSP-1 and the relationship with microvessels density (MVD) in HCC are not reported. In this research, 43 HCC specimens were detected with immunohistochemistry in order to explore the relationship between TSP-1 and MVD and the relationship between TSP-1 and HCC, and the clinical value of TSP-1.Material and MethodSpecimens of HCC were obtained from 43 patients who underwent surgery. There were 35 males and 8 females. The age of patients ranged from 30 to 76 (mean: 49.7). There were 33 patients with positive AFP (76.7%), 31 patients with positive HBsAg (74.4%), 8 patients with the diameter of tumor less than 5cm and 35 patients with the diameter more than 5crn. The diameters of tumor ranged from 3cm to 16cm (mean 7.8cm). Tumors were graded according to the criteria described by Edmondson and Steiner: Grade I, 4cases; Grade II, 17 cases; Grade III, 20 cases; GradeIV,2cases. Seventeen cases were well encapsulated and 26 cases were not completely encapsulated, 13 cases had cancer emboli and others had not. No patients had received radiotherapy, chemotherapy, trans arterial embolization or immunotherapy before operation.Three cases with lacerating injury of liver were used as normal controls. Anti-Tsp-1 and anti-CD34 monoclonal antibodies were used to perform immunhistochemistry and the specimens were stained with SP method. Micro-vessels density is indicated by the highest numbers of vessels of one field among three high power fields. When the positive parenchymal and stromal cells and matrix are more than 10% of the total cells, TSP-1 is regarded as positive. Statistical analysis was executed by SPSS10.0 software, a values less than 0.05 were considered significant.Result:1. The expression of TSP-1 was negative in normal controls. The expression of CD34 was negative in the sinusoid of normal and paracarcinoma tissues.All HCC tissues showed diffuse CD34 expression in sinusoid-like pattern.2. The positive rate of TSP-1 was 67.4% (29/43) in HCC and 48.4% (15/31) in paracarcinoma tissues. There was no significant difference between these two groups (P>0.05).3. The expression rates of TSP-1 had no relationship with the age, sex of patients or the levels of AFP before surgery, positive or negative HBSAg status and the diameter of tumor (P>0.05). The positive rate in the well-differentiated group ( I, II grade) is 61.9% and 72.7% in the poor-differentiated group(III, IV grade). There is no significant difference between two groups (P>0.05). The positive rates in the group with cancer emboli are 62.5% and 80.0% in the group without thrombosis. There is significant difference between these two groups (P<0.05). The positive rate of the group well encapsulated was 88.2% and 53.8% in the group without intact capsule or without capsule. There was a significant difference between these two groups (P<0.05). The positive rate of the high aggression group and low aggression group were 50% and 82.6% respectively. There was a significant difference between these two groups4. The MVD of tumors was 8-31/high power field (mean 18.47±5.77). The MVD had no relationship with the age and sex of patients, the levels of AFP before operation, positive, negative HBsAg, the pathological grade and the diameter (P<0.05). The MVD was 21.92 ±6.25 in the group with cancer emboli and 17.00± 4.93 in the group without cancer emboli respectively. The MVD was 15.53±4.58 in... |
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