Expression Of Smad3in Hepatocellular Carcinoma And Its Clinicopathologic Features

Objective Transforming growth factor β (TGF beta) receptor and its downstream signaltransduction medium composed of an important tumor suppressor signaling pathway. Therole of one of these signal transduction medium—Smad3—in the pathogenesis of humanhepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. This study was designed to study thecorrelation between expression of Smad3protein in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)and clinicopathologic features， postoperative tumor free survival rate and overallcumulative survival rate.Methods Immunohistochemical staining (immunohistochemistry) was used to detect theexpression of Smad3protein in76cases of hepatocellular carcinoma. And76cases ofclinical data make follow up study. Then, the expression difference and clinicopathologicfeatures of Smad3were analyzed.Results In76cases of human hepatocellular carcinoma, expression of Smad3proteinin one group of tumor size less than5cm is higher than the other group of the tumor sizegreater than or equal to5cm (p=0.024); Expression of Smad3protein is lower in the singletumor than multiple tumor(p=0.012); The state of Smad3protein in well and moderatelydifferentiated tumors was significantly higher than the poorly differentiated group (p=0.001); Expression of Smad3protein in group of alpha fetoprote less than or equal to400ng/ml was higher than the group of alpha fetoprotein greater than400ng/ml; Patients with high expression of Smad3protein had shorter postoperative tumor free survival (p=0.026) and total cumulative survival rate (p=0.039) than those with low expression group.Conclusions High Smad3protein expression may inhibit tumor growth.However,expression of Smad3protein is lower in the single tumor than multiple tumor and patientswith high expression of Smad3protein had shorter postoperative tumor free survival andtotal cumulative survival rate than those with low expression group, indicating that highexpression of Smad3protein may also promote metastasis. It can be speculated that Smad3protein in HCC has a dual role, but the specific mechanism of action needs further study.