title: Lewis Antigens, alpha1,3 Fucosyltransferses and the Metastatic Potential of Human Primary Liver Cancer.
abstract: In order to study the expression of Lewis antigens and the subtypes of alpha1,3 fucosyltransferase(alpha1,3FucT) in human primary liver cancer, and their relations with the cancer cell embolus formation, as well as the expression of nm23-H1, a metastatic suppressor gene, Lewis antigens were detected with immunohistochemical method, and the mRNA of alpha1,3 FucTs and nm23-H1 were determined with Northern blot. Results showed that the positive rates of the expression of four Lewis antigens, sialyl Lewis X(Sle(x)), Lewis X(Le(x)), sialyl dimeric Lewis X(SDLe(x)) and sialyl Lewis A(Sle(a)), in human primary liver cancer were about 80%. The expression of Sle(x) was rather higher, Le(x) and Sle(a) were lower, but the expression of SDLe(x) was only in trace amount. The four Lewis antigens were not expressed in the liver regions adjacent to the cancer tissues. The transcriptional level of alpha1,3 FucT-III/VI mRNA in cancer tissues was higher than that in the adjacent regions, especially in the cancer tissues of patients with portal vein cancer cell embolus(CCE). However, the expression of alpha1,3 FucT-III/VI mRNA was not different in the adjacent regions in spite of the presence or absence of CCE in the patients. In contrast, the expression of alpha1,3 FucT-VII was rather lower and identical to each other both in cancer tissues and adjacent regions. In addition, it was found that the expression of nm23-H1, a metastasis suppressor gene, was markedly lower in the cancer tissues of patients with CCE than that in the non-CCE patients and the adjacent regions. Furthermore, the expression of nm23-H1 was negatively related to the expression of alpha1,3 FucT-III/VI. These results indicated that the expression of alpha1,3 FucT-III/VI and its product Sle(x) were correlated with CCE (metastatic potential), and the down-regulation of alpha1,3 FucT-III/VI and Sle(x) may be one of the mechanisms of nm23-H1 to inhibit liver cancer metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Glycoconjugate Research, Ministry of Health, Department of Biochemistry, Shanghai Medical University. hlchen@shmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ji-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jia-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Hui-Li
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Chen