title: Expressional analysis of anti-apoptotic phospho-BAD protein and mutational analysis of pro-apoptotic BAD gene in hepatocellular carcinomas.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It has become clear that, together with proliferation, deregulation of apoptosis plays a pivotal role in tumourigenesis. BAD is a pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein and regulates the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Phosphorylation of BAD inhibits the apoptosis function of BAD.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether alteration of the phospho-BAD protein and somatic mutation of BAD gene are characteristics of human hepatocellular carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analysed the expression of phospho-BAD in 20 hepatocellular carcinomas by immunohistochemistry. Also, we analysed the BAD gene for the detection of somatic mutations by a single-strand conformation polymorphism assay in 69 hepatocellular carcinomas.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Phospho-BAD expression in the non-tumour hepatocytes was seen in all of the hepatocellular carcinomas, while the expression in the cancer cells was observed in 15% (3 of the 20) of the hepatocellular carcinomas. There was no somatic mutation of BAD Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domain in the 69 hepatocellular carcinomas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data showed that loss of phospho-BAD expression, but not BAD gene mutation, is a feature of hepatocellular carcinomas. The decreased expression of phospho-BAD in the hepatocellular carcinoma cells compared to the non-tumour hepatocytes suggests that loss of phospho-BAD expression may play a role in hepatocellular tumourigenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Socho-gu, 137-701 Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Soung
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D051023:BH3 Interacting Domain Death Agonist Protein / Q000235:genetics*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D010766:Phosphorylation; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D051025:bcl-Associated Death Protein / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C494819:BAD protein, human; D051023:BH3 Interacting Domain Death Agonist Protein; D051025:bcl-Associated Death Protein