Clinical Significance Of Expression Of Piwil2in Hepatocelluar Carcinoma

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) is a common tumor in China. At present, although the mechanism of carcinogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma makes some progress, the specific molecular mechanisms remains unclear. HCC is a long-term complex process in which multi-stage, multi-factor and multiple genes are involved. PIWI(P-element induced wimpy testis) domain (PPD) proteins are members of a well-conserved family which is expressed in a variety of organisms. However, there is not any evidence to show that the relationship between status of mRNA of PIWIL2and expression of its protein in HCC. We use RT-PCR and Western-blot to discuss their role as a cancer gene in the invasion and metastasis of the HCC which will provide new insights into HCC carcinogenesis, cancer treatment and feasible chemopreventive measures for the future.ObjectTo investigate the mRNA and protein expression of Piwil2gene in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), and then discuss the clinical significance of Piwil2in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods1.70cases of HCC specimens and matched tumor-adjacent non-cancerous specimens had been collected from January2011to April2012in the first affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou University. All cases are diagnosed by experienced pathological doctor and are not accepted any treatment before operation.2. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot were used to detect the Piwil2mRNA and protein levels in70Surgical excised HCC specimens and paired adjacent non-cancerous specimens.3SPSS13.0statistical software is used for statistical analysis. The relative quantitative RT-PCR results were expressed as mean and standard deviation and tested for statistical significance with Student’s two-tailed t-test. Significant differences between the expression of Runx3and clinicopathological parameters were compared by the X2-test.All P-values were derived from two-sided tests and a probability less than0.05was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe relative expression value of Piwil2mRNA was0.91±0.04in HCC vs0.32±0.04in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (t=37.240, P<0.05). The Piwil2mRNA expression in HCC correlated with some clinical pathological parameters including low tumor differentiation, intrahepatic invasion and metastasis. The protein expression of Piwil2gene in HCC was higher than that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The Piwil2protein expression in HCC correlated with some clinical pathological parameters including intrahepatic invasion and metastasis. Furthermore there was a distinct correlation between the mRNA and protein expression of Piwi2gene(x2=13.113P<0.01).Conclusions1. Piwi2expression was releated to the intrahepatic invasion and metastasis and may be one of candidate cancer genes.2. The Piwil2had the potential to be developed into a novel biomarker for detection and therapy of HCC.