The Expression And Clinical Significance Of CD146,VEGF,MMP-2 In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To explore the biological and clinical significances of CD146,VEGF,MMP-2 in human hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), through testing the expressions of CD146 mRNA and CD146,VEGF,MMP-2 protein on the samples from HCC patients.METHODS: Real time polymerase chain reaction (Real time PCR) was employed to determine the expression of CD146 mRNA in 70 liver tissues with HCC and their adjacent liver tissues and 18 liver tissues without HCC. Immunohistochemistry was employed to determine the expressions of CD146, VEGF, MMP-2 and microvessel density (MVD) in 60 cases of liver tissues with HCC and their adjacent liver tissues.RESULTS: The expression level of CD146 mRNA in the HCC tissue (0.044+0.0178) was markedly higher than the adjacent liver tissue ( 0.0367±0.0121, P<0.01 ) ,but the liver tissue of adjacent-carcinoma (0.0367±0.0121) was also markedly higher than in the noncancer liver tissues (0.0263±0.0102, P<0.01) .The expression of CD146 mRNA in the human HCC tissue was significantly correlated with clincal stage, the portal vein tumor thrombus, the presence of extrahepatic metastasis, and the recurrence of tumor, but not correlated with the number of tumor, the diameter of tumor, the expression level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)in serum, and the differentiation of tumor. the positive rates of CD146, VEGF and MMP-2 in the HCC tissues were significantly higher than those in the liver tissues of adjacent -carcinoma (66.67% vs. 30%, 63.33% vs. 33.33%,60% vs. 26.67% P< 0.05). MVD in the HCC tissue was significantly higher than in the liver tissue of adjacent-carcinoma (54.92±8.55 vs. 21.36±6.63, P<0.05) . The expression of CD146 in the HCC tissue was significantly correlated with the clinical stage, the portal vein cancer embolism and the presence of extrahepatic metastasis, but not correlated with the recurrence of tumor, the number of tumor, the size of tumor, the level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in serum and the differentiation degree of tumor. The expression of VEGF in the HCC tissue was significantly correlated with the recurrence of tumor, the presence of extrahepatic metastasis, the clinical stage, the portal vein cancer embolism, and the size of tumor, but not correlated with the number of tumor, the level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in serum and the differentiation degree of tumor. MVD was positively correlated with expressions of CD146, VEGF and MMP-2. Among positive of CD146,VEGF,MMP-2 in the HCC tissues MVD was higher than those in negative HCC tissues. The expression of CD146 was positively correlated with that of VEGF and MMP-2.CONCLUSION: This study suggest that the aberrant expression of CD146, VEGF and MMP-2 in HCC tissues is closely correlated to the argiogenesis and metastasis of HCC, analyzing their expressions may contribute to synthetically evaluating the prognesis of HCC.