Experimental Study Of The Hepatocyte Growth Factor Contribute To Lymphangiogenesis And Lymphatic Metastasis In Gastric Cancer

[Objective] To investigate the mutual relationship between hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and lymphatic vessel formation of gastric carcinoma and further clarify the possible ways of HGF to promote gastric cancer lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis.[Methods ] The expression of HGF, VEGF-c, c-Met and the microlymphatic density (MLD) in tumoral and non-tumoral areas of 60 cases of GC and 20 cases of gastric ulcer (GU) were evaluated by immunohistochemistry, using monoclonal antibodies for HGF, VEGF-c, c-Met and Lyve-1 respectively. The relationship between MLD and clinicopathologic features was analyzed.[Results] The proteins of HGF, VEGF-c, c-Met were over expressed in GC, and were significantly higher than those in normal gastric mucosa and the mucosa of GU (P＜0.001).The MLD was significant difference between different groups of pathological types, lymphatic metastasis and distant metastasis (p＜0.05);The MLD was significant positive correlation with HGF(p＜0.001)and had a multiple linear regression with HGF (p = 0.007)too.[Conclusions] HGF as well as VEGF-c were a definite lymphangiogenic factor. HGF can directly or indirectly stimulate lymphangiogenesis and may contribute to lymphatic metastasis in gastric carcinoma.