The Role And Significance Of Hepatocyte Growth Factor And Its Receptor E-met In The Occurrence And Development Of Human Esophageal Squamous Cell Arcinoma

Objective:To explore the role of HGF and its receptor c-met in the occurrence and development of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by detecting the expression of these factors in normal mucosa and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma as well as the relationships of these factors with the clinical pathological characteristics of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients such as age, gender, length of tumour, differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage so as to evaluate the relationships between these factors and prongosis.Method:50cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and20cases of esophageal normal mucosa(NM) which were surgically removed and certified by pathology from July,2009to April,2010of Chengde Medical College affiliated hospital were collected. RT-PCR was used to detect mRNA expression of HGF and c-met, immunohistochemical staining was used to detect protein expression of HGF and c-met.Results:1The expression of HGF in ESCC and NM.Both mRNA and protein expression of HGF in ESCC was significantly higher than those in NM (P<0.01, P<0.01).2The expression of c-met in ESCC and NM.Both mRNA and protein expression of c-met in ESCC was significantly higher than that in NM (P<0.01, P<0.01).3The relationships between expression of HGF and clinical pathological characteristics of ESCC. 3.1The relationships between expression of HGF mRNA and clinical pathological characteristics of ESCC.The expression of HGF mRNA was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. The expression of HGF mRNA of lymph node metastasis group was significantly higher than that of without lymph node metastasis group (P<0.01).The expression of HGF mRNA of TNM stage III and IV was significantly higher than that of TNM stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ (P<0.01).Correlations were not found between HGF mRNA and every other characteristics of ESCC such as age, gender, length of tumour, differentiation and depth of invasion.3.2The relationships between expression of HGF protein and clinical pathological characteristics of ESCC.The expression of HGF protein was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage.The positive expression of HGF protein of lymph node metastasis group was significantly higher than that of without lymph node metastasis group (P<0.01).The positive expression of HGF protein of TNM stage III and IV was significantly higher than that of TNM stage I and II (P<0.01).There were no relationships between HGF protein and every other characteristics of ESCC such as age, gender, length of tumour, differentiation and depth of invasion.4The relationships between expression of c-met and clinical pathological characteristics of ESCC.4.1The relationships between expression of c-met mRNA and clinical pathological characteristics of ESCC.The expression of c-met mRNA was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage.The expression of c-met mRNA of lymph node metastasis group was significantly higher than that of without lymph node metastasis group (P<0.01).The expression of c-met mRNA of TNM stage III and IV was significantly higher than that of TNM stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ (P<0.01).Correlations were not found between c-met mRNA and every other characteristics of ESCC such as age, gender, length of tumour, differentiation and depth of invasion.4.2The relationships between expression of c-met protein level and clinical pathological characteristics of ESCC.The expression of c-met protein was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage.The positive expression of c-met protein of lymph node metastasis group was significantly higher than that of without lymph node metastasis group (P<0.05).The positive expression of c-met protein of TNM stage III and IV was significantly higher than that of TNM stage I and II (P<0.05).There were no correlations between the protein expression levels of c-met and every other characteristics of ESCC such as age, gender, length of tumour, differentiation and depth of invasion.5The relationships between expression of HGF and c-met in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.There were positive correlations bewteen the overexpression of HGF and c-met in ESCC, both mRNA and protein (r=0.89, P<0.01; r=0.68, P<0.01).Conclusion:1The overexpression of HGF and c-met may play an important role in the occurrence of ESCC.2The positive correlations between HGF,c-met overexpression and lymph node metastasis,TNM stage indicated that they played an important role in the metastasis and development of ESCC.3Overexpression of c-met combining a positive correlation with HGF in ESCC suggested that there might be a paracrine or autocrine manner in promotion of tumor growth.