Cyclooxygenase-2 Expression In Hepatocellular Carcinoma And Its Relation To The Inhibitor Of Apoptosis Proteins

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies in china, about 6% of the worldwide incidence of type in all human cancers is on the rise. The overall survival in patients with liver cancer is a very short period, the overall five-year survival rate is less than 10%. Surgery is the most effective treatment. More than 80% of hepatocellular carcinoma cases were too late to surgery when they were diagnosed, Even the early cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, the incidence of recurrence is 20% to 25% at one year after radical surgery. Systemic chemotherapy is an important means of hepatocellular carcinoma, especially no surgical indications of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, Although various chemotherapeutic drugs have been used for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, they are generally not effective either when used alone or in combination therapy with other drugs. Apoptosis resistance is one of the characteristics of HCC, and it has played a key role in the incidence of HCC development. Apoptosis resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma is also an important reason for treatment failure. The possible mechanism of apoptosis resistance is a very complicated thing. Recent studies have found that cyclooxygenase (COX) has a obviously role in inhibiting apoptosis, which has attracted wide attention. Cyclooxygenase is an important rate-limiting enzyme, it can catalysis arachidonic acid into prostaglandins, there are two main subtypes: constitive COX-1 and inducible COX-2. Large number of studies show that COX-2 is highly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma, COX-2 inhibited apoptosis in HCC be considered an important cause of chemotherapy resistance, but the mechanism remains unclear. In recent years, We are very concerned about the inhibiting apoptosis of the apoptosis inhibitor proteins in the world. In our study, the expression of COX-2 protein and the apoptosis inhibitor proteins were detected by immunohistochemistry in hepatocellular carcinoma by using tissue microarray, to explore the correlation between COX-2 and the apoptosis inhibitor proteins.Objective: To study the expression of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) in hepatocellular carcinoma,and to explore the relationship of COX-2 expression with the apopotsis inhibitor proteins.Methods: The expression of COX-2 protein and the apoptosis inhibitor proteins were detected by immunohistochemistry in 114 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma by using tissue microarray, to analysis the relationship between the COX-2 protein and the apoptosis inhibitor proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma.Results: The positive expression rates of COX-2,XIAP,cIAP-1,Survivin,cIAP-2,Livin in hepatocellular carcinoma were respectively 71.05%,84.62%,83.33%,77.19%,63.46%,16.67%; The expression of COX-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma was positively correlated with the expression of XIAP,cIAP-1,Survivin(P<0.05), The expression of COX-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma was not correlated with the expression of cIAP-2 and Livin (P>0.05); There were no relationship among COX-2,Survivin,cIAP-2,Livin expression and the size of tumor, the grading of tumor, lymph node metastasis, the stage of tumor. (P>0.05); The positive expression rates of XIAP in stageâ… ,â…¡,â…¢andâ…£were respectively 33.33%,72.62%,90.00% and 100.00%, The positive expression rates of cIAP-1 in stageâ… ,â…¡,â…¢andâ…£were respectively 33.33%,80.95%,90.00%,100.00%, the differences were significantly(P<0.05), but there were no relationship among XIAP,cIAP-1 expression and the size of tumor, the grading of tumor, lymph node metastasis (P>0.05).Conclusion: The expression of COX-2,XIAP,cIAP-1,Survivin and cIAP-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma are high, but the expression of Livin is low. The expression of COX-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma was positively correlated with the expression of XIAP,cIAP-1 and Survivin, The expression of COX-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma was not correlated with the expression of cIAP-2 and Livin. There were relationship among XIAP,cIAP-1 expression and the stage of tumor.