Plasma transforming growth factor-beta 1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Comparison with chronic liver diseases.
BACKGROUND
Many kinds of human malignant tissue, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), were reported to overexpress transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) gene. However, little work has been done on the circulating TGF-beta 1 in patients with malignant tumors.


METHODS
Plasma TGF-beta 1 levels in patients with HCC (n = 26) were compared with those in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) (n = 12) and cirrhosis (n = 11) and in normal subjects (n = 20) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system after acid/ethanol extraction.


RESULTS
The patients with HCC had significantly higher plasma TGF-beta 1 levels (19.3 +/- 19.5 ng/ml; mean +/- standard deviation [SD]) than those in normal subjects (1.4 +/- 0.8 ng/ml) and in patients with CH (3.0 +/- 3.1 ng/ml) and cirrhosis (3.7 +/- 2.1 ng/ml) (P < 0.01). Plasma TGF-beta 1 concentrations in the patients with cirrhosis were also significantly higher than those in the normal subjects (P < 0.05). The extracted plasma TGF-beta 1 from the patients with HCC had biologic activity according to a growth inhibitory assay using mink lung epithelial cells. No significant correlation was found between the plasma TGF-beta 1 levels in the patients with HCC and serum alpha-fetoprotein levels. After successful treatment for HCC, the amount of plasma TGF-beta 1 significantly decreased from 22.6 plus or minus 16.7 ng/ml (mean +/- SD) to 10.2 plus or minus 6.5 ng/ml (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated higher levels of plasma TGF-beta 1 in the patients with HCC than those in patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Plasma TGF-beta 1 might be a candidate for a novel tumor marker for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Shirai
Y
Y
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka University Medical School, Suita, Japan.
Kawata
S
S
Tamura
S
S
Ito
N
N
Tsushima
H
H
Takaishi
K
K
Kiso
S
S
Matsuzawa
Y
Y
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D016461:Chemoembolization, Therapeutic; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000097:blood*; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins