Clinical Significance Of The Type Ⅲ TGF-beta Receptor Expression In Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling pathway has a comlex role in human cancer, functioning to either suppress or promote cancer progression. The role of one of these receptor, the typeⅢTGF-βreceptor (TβRⅢ,betaglycan) in the hepatocarcinoma is unknown. Our objective in this research is to study the expression of TβRⅢin HCC and paracancerous tissue.Methods IHC was used to detect the expression of TβRⅢprotein in HCC and paracancerous tissues from 40 patients with diagnosis of HCC. TβRⅢmessenger RNA (mRNA) of these tissues was measured by RT- PCR. Then, the expression difference of TβRⅢand its clinicopathologic significance were analyzed.Results The expression of TβRⅢprotein in paracancerous tissues was higher than in cancer tissue. There was no significance expression of TβRⅢprotein mRNA(P>0.05). There was no relation between the expression of TβRⅢprotein and size of tumor and metastasis(P>0.05), but it was related with clinical stage and cirrhosis(P<0.05)。Conclusions There is absent or depressed expression of TβRⅢprotein in HCC, and this may contribute to the tumorigenesis of HCC.