Expression And Clinical Significance Of RECK And MMP-14 In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of the reversion-inducing-cysteine-richprotein with Kazal motif (RECK) and Membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase-1(MT1-MMP, MMP-14) in human hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) tissues. In orderto explore the relationship between expression of RECK , MMP-14 and tumorinvasion, metastasis and prognosis in HCC.Methods Reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) wereemployed to determine the mRNA expression of RECK and MMP-14 in 61HCC tissues and their adjacent liver tissues as well as 18 normal liver tissues.Meanwhile, the relationship between expression of these genes mRNA in HCCtissues and various clinical parameters were analysed, such as the clinical stage,with or without the portal vein tumor embolus, extrahepatic metastasis,recurrence,the presence of liver cirrhosis and the differentiation of tumor ,thenumber and the diameter of tumor,the level of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)et al.Results The expression level of RECK mRNA in the HCC tissue (0.335±0.086)was markedly lower than that in the adjacent liver tissue (0.438±0.083) andnormal liver tissue (0.413±0.031) (P<0.01). The expression level of RECKmRNA were not significantly different between the the adjacent liver tissue andnormal liver tissue(P >0.05). The expression level of MMP-14 mRNA in the HCCtissue (0.419±0.073) was markedly higher than that in the adjacent liver tissue(0.318±0.072) and normal liver tissue (0.235±0.055) (P<0.01). The expressionlevel of MMP-14 mRNA in the adjacent liver tissue was markedly higher than thatin the normal liver tissue (P<0.01). There were negative correlation betweenRECK mRNA and MMP-14 mRNA expression in the HCC tissue(r=-0.283,p=0.027). There were no correlation between RECK mRNA and MMP-14 mRNAexpression in the adjacent liver tissue (r= -0.12,p=0.359) and normal liver tissue(r=0.197,p=0.432).The expression of RECK mRNA in the HCC tissue wassignificantly correlated with the clinical stage, the portal vein tumor embolus,thepresence of extrahepatic metastasis and the recurrence of tumor,but not correlatedwith the diameter, the number , the level of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP),thedifferentiation of tumor and the presence of liver cirrhosis. The expression ofMMP-14 mRNA in the HCC tissue was significantly correlated with the clinicalstage, the portal vein tumor embolus,the presence of extrahepatic metastasis,the recurrence and the diameter of tumor,but not correlated with the the number oftumor, the level of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP),the differentiation of tumor andthe presence of liver cirrhosis.Conclusions The mRNA expression of RECK and MMP-14 are related tothe invasion and metastasis of HCC. These results indicate that RECK andMMP-14 might play an important role in the pathogenesis of HCC. whereas,RECK and MMP-14 could be considered as the marker for predicting themetastasis and recurrence of HCC.