Gradual upregulation of OCI-5 expression during occurrence and progression of rat hepatocellular carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
OCI-5, the rat homologene of human glypican 3 (GPC3), is confirmed upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The present study was undertaken to detect gene expression change of OCI-5 during occurrence and progression of rat HCC.


METHODS
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were given diethylnitrosamine (DENA) to induce HCC. Three DENA-induced rats and one control rat were sacrificed every week for 18 weeks during the development of HCC. Tissues specimens were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and total RNA was isolated. Sk-Hep1 cells were treated with DENA at different concentrations. The gene expression levels of OCI-5 and GPC3 were detected with the RT-PCR method.


RESULTS
OCI-5 was not expressed in normal rat liver tissues. When HCC occurred and aggravated, OCI-5 expression was gradually elevated to a very high level. GPC3 was not expressed in the DENA-treated Sk-Hep1 cells.


CONCLUSIONS
OCI-5 was not expressed in normal rat liver tissues but in rat HCC tissues. High-expression of OCI-5 in DENA-induced rat HCC model was the gene expression change of HCC not the DENA-induced gene expression. The expression level of OCI-5 was not only elevated in rat HCC but also gradually along the occurrence and progression of HCC, indicating that GPC3 might serve as a sensitive marker of early stage HCC.
Jiang
Wei-Jun
WJ
Department of Gastroenterology, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China.
Man
Xiao-Bo
XB
Tang
Liang
L
Song
Hong-Yin
HY
Li
Shen-Jing
SJ
Cai
Guo-Jun
GJ
Qiu
Xiu-Hua
XH
Hu
He-Ping
HP
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D053673:Glypicans; D019812:Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans / Q000235:genetics*; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012313:RNA / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D015854:Up-Regulation
D053673:Glypicans; D019812:Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans; D012313:RNA