Correlation of E-cadherin expression and recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
We performed this study to clarify the relationship between E-cadherin expression and recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma.


METHODS
Forty-five surgically resected specimens of hepatocellular carcinoma were collected. The patients included 35 men and 10 women. The ages were between 30 and 77 years, with a mean age of 54 years. Western blotting and/or immunohistochemical staining of the tumor and non-tumor tissues for detection of E-cadherin were performed. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to check the levels of mRNA for E-cadherin and nucleotide sequencing of putative calcium binding domains were done if the tumor tissues showed negative E-cadherin expression.


RESULTS
Three (6.7%) tumor tissues were negative for E-cadherin with both Western blotting and immunohistochemical staining. Of the 3, two showed decreased mRNA in tumor tissues while the other 10 randomly selected samples did not show this phenomenon. No mutation of nucleotide sequence in the putative calcium binding domains was found. Two of the 3 patients had invasive cancers by histological studies while 13 out of the other 42 E-cadherin positive cases showed invasive cancers.


CONCLUSIONS
E-cadherin underexpression might have some contribution to the early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. Transcriptional or post-transcriptional down-regulation may be the mechanism of underexpression of E-cadherin in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Huang
G T
GT
Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, ROC.
Lee
H S
HS
Chen
C H
CH
Sheu
J C
JC
Chiou
L L
LL
Chen
D S
DS
D000368:Aged; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000502:physiology; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D015820:Cadherins