Expression Of NOP14 In Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma And Its Clinical Significance

?Purpose?Nucleoprotein 14(NOP14)has been shown to play an important role in the development of various tumors,cell proliferation,metastasis and apoptosis.However,the expression of NOP14 in HCC(Hepatocellular carcinoma,hepatocellular carcinoma,hereinafter referred to as liver cancer)is still unclear.The purpose of this study was to detect the expression of NOP14 in hepatocellular carcinoma,and to explore the correlation between the expression of NOP14 and the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with liver cancer.?Materials and methods?Immunohistochemistry(IHC)staining was used to detect the expression of NOP14 in 97 cases of HCC tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues.The relative expression levels of NOP14 protein and mRNA in 20 pairs of freshly frozen hepatocarcinoma tissues and adjacent tissues were detected by Western Blot and real-time quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR).The correlation between the expression level of NOP14 and the matched clinicopathological data and prognosis in 97 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma paraffin was analyzed by statistical methods.?Results?The IHC results of 97 paraffin-embedded tissue samples showed that the high expression rate of NOP14 in liver cancer tissues was 64.9%(63/97),while the high expression rate in adjacent tissues was 12.4%(12/97).Statistically significant(P < 0.001),the high expression of NOP14 in HCC tissues was statistically significant with tumor vascular invasion(P = 0.004),TNM stage(P = 0.013),and Edmondson classification(P = 0.009).Both qRT-PCR and Western blot showed that the expression of NOP14 in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in matched para-carcinoma tissues.The difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P<0.01,P<0.001).Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Logrank test indicated that the median survival of patients with high and low NOP14 expression was 17 months and 35 months,respectively,and the difference was statistically significant(P < 0.05).?Conclusions?The expression of NOP14 was significantly associated with the presence of vascular invasion,TNM staging,and Edmondson grade in liver cancer.The detection of NOP14 contributes to the assessment of the severity of liver cancer patients.