Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 1 Expression And Its Modulating Effect In Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective:Detect the expression of sFRP1 among HCC, para-carcinoma and normal hepatic tissues. Investigate whether restoration of sFRP1 affected HCC growth and lung metastasis and explore the role of sFRP1 in HCC. Eventually find a new approach to cure HCC.Methods:Sample collections, Immunohistochemistry analysis to detect the expression of sFRP1 in HCC, para-carcinoma and normal hepatic tissues. To get the up-regulation of sFRP1 in MHCC97-H cell lines, the eukaryotic expression vector construction, the cells transfected technology were used. The effects of sFRP1 re-expression on tumor growth and metastasis were assessed in vitro and in vivo. The cell proliferation was detected by MTT. The cell invasion was detected by transwell assay.ResultsImmunohistochemistry staining showed that sFRP1 protein was mainly expressed in the para-carcinoma and normal hepatic tissue group. However, there was no significant expression in HCC tissue. The proliferation assay indicated cell number in SC-1(535.0±13.2) and SC-2(623.3±10.4) was significantly lower than that in mock group(786.7±15.3)(P<0.01), respectively. The in vitro invasion assay indicated cell number in SC-1(63.7±10.7) and SC-2(80.0±6.2) was significantly lower than that in mock group(167.7±8.7), respectively. The intrahepatic tumor’s volume and the weight in SC-1(734±214mm3、0.95±0.16g) and SC-2(639±106mm3、0.92±0.12g) were significantly lower than that in mock group(1468±457mm3、1.64±0.21g)(P<0.01), respectively. The rates of lung metastasis in SC-1(3/10,30%) was significantly lower than that in mock group(10/10,100%)(P<0.01). The rates of lung metastasis in SC-2(4/10,40%) was significantly lower than that in mock group (10/10, 100%)(P<0.05). The average number of lung metastasis in SC-1(1.7±1.1) and SC-2(2.2±1.4) were significantly lower than that in mock group(5.8±1.2)(P<0.01), respectively.Conclusion:sFRP1 may play an important role in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, thus providing a possible therapeutic strategy against HCC.