Proteomic Profiling Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Portal Vein Tumor Thrombosis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which mortality rate ranks second in malignant tumors, is one of the most common gastrointestinal malignant tumors in china. Portal vein tumor thrombus always appeared in moderate or advanced liver cancer. Chances are huge for intrahepatic metastasis, distant metastases and portal hypertension if hepatocellular carcinoma is combined with portal vein tumor thrombus. Portal vein tumor thrombus also indicates a poor prognosis. Although the comprehensive treatment has been applied to the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombus, curative effects are still poor. To understand the physiological mechanism of portal vein tumor thrombus, we compared the protein expression profiles by 2-DE in HCC tissues with and without PVTT. Our results revealed that 33 proteins were differentially expressed in HCC tissues with and without PVTT. Those proteins may be closely related to the occurrence of portal vein tumor thrombus. Further western-blot verification showed that protein disulfide-isomerase A6 (PDIA6) was highly expressed in HCC tissues with PVTT, while Apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) was highly expressed in HCC tissues without PVTT. Up-regulation of PDI A6 and down-regulation of ApoA-I are closely related to PVTT in hepatocellular carcinoma, and these two proteins may also be useful for the long-time prognostic evaluation of patients with liver cancer in company with PVTT.