Gradually increased Golgi protein 73 expression in the progression of benign liver diseases to precancerous lesions and hepatocellular carcinoma correlates with prognosis of patients.

AIM: Serum Golgi protein 73 (sGP73) is a novel biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, there are few reports on the pattern of GP73 expression in the progression of benign liver diseases to precancerous lesions and HCC. This study aimed to investigate GP73 expression and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters. METHODS: Tissue GP73 (tGP73) levels were detected in specimens of group A (n = 186) including HCC, peritumoral tissue (PTL), high/low-grade hepatic atypical hyperplasia (AH), chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and normal controls (NC) by immunohistochemistry, and GP73 expression in group B (n = 159) and group C (n = 16) were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot, respectively. sGP73 levels were detected in subjects of group D (n = 287) by enzyme-linked immunoassay. RESULTS: GP73 expression increased gradually from NC, CHB, PTL to high-grade AH and HCC at both protein and mRNA levels (P < 0.05), while sGP73 in the HCC group was lower than in the liver cirrhosis (LC) group (P < 0.001). Both tGP73 and sGP73 levels were negatively associated with tumor size and tumor-node-metastasis stage, and tGP73 levels were positively associated with tumor differentiation. The high-tGP73 group showed significantly better overall and disease-free survival than the low-tGP73 group (P = 0.008, P = 0.018). Multivariate analysis revealed that the tGP73 level was an independent prognostic factor for HCC, but not sGP73. CONCLUSION: GP73 expression pattern suggests that the regulatory mechanism of GP73 is related to the progression of chronic liver diseases. Furthermore, a high level of tGP73 is a favorable prognostic factor for HCC.

Expression and clinical significance of livin protein in hepatocellular carcinoma.

In this study, the two-step PV method of immunohistochemistry was used to determine livin protein expression in HCC tissues, pericarcinoma tissues, hepatitis/hepatic cirrhosis tissues, and normal hepatic tissues, and livin protein expression was detected in the blood plasma of patients with HCC before and after surgery, subjects with hepatic cirrhosis and hepatitis, and healthy blood donors using ELISA. Livin protein expression was significantly higher in HCC tissues than that in normal hepatic tissues and hepatitis/hepatic cirrhosis tissues, with no significant difference between HCC tissues and pericarcinoma tissues. The HCC patients with positive livin protein expression had a significantly higher survival rate than those with negative livin protein expression. Livin protein expression was significantly higher in the blood plasma of patients with HCC before and after surgery and in patients with hepatic cirrhosis and hepatitis than that in healthy blood donors, whereas livin protein expression in the blood plasma of patients with HCC was not significantly different from that of patients with hepatic cirrhosis and hepatitis. Livin protein expression in HCC tissues did not correlate with that in the blood plasma of the same HCC patients. Livin protein expression may be a potential, effective indicator for assessing prognosis in patients with HCC.