Decreased expression of UK114 is related to the differentiation status of human hepatocellular carcinoma.
Previous studies have identified that the expression of UK114 is tissue specific and the protein has been found to be most abundant in liver and kidney. However, the expression of UK114 in human hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship to differentiation and transformation of hepatocellular carcinoma have not been studied. In this study, the expression of UK114 in human hepatocellular carcinoma was examined by Northern and Western blot analyses. We found that UK114 was significantly down-regulated in most of hepatocellular carcinoma tissues compared with adjacent nontumor tissues (72.7%) at both mRNA and protein levels. We looked into the possibility that this decreased expression of UK114 in the hepatocellular carcinoma tissues may play a role in the differentiation or tumorigenicity of hepatocellular carcinoma. Immunohistochemical staining showed that the reduced expression of UK114 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues was correlated with the tumor differentiation status as graded by the Edmondson-Steiner classification. On the other hand, overexpression of UK114 was not able to suppress the proliferation of human hepatoma cells and tumorigenicity in nude mice. These results suggest that UK114 does not seem to act as a tumor suppressor gene; however, it may useful as a biomarker that will assist in the grading of the differentiation status of hepatocellular carcinoma samples.
Chong
Chin-Liew
CL
Division of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, 35, Keyan Road, Zhunan Town, Miaoli County 350, Taiwan, [corrected] Republic of China.
Huang
Shiu-Feng
SF
Hu
Cheng-po
CP
Chen
Ya-Ling
YL
Chou
Hsin-Ying
HY
Chau
Gar-Yang
GY
Shew
Jin-Yuh
JY
Tsai
Yue-Lin
YL
Chen
Chiung-Tong
CT
Chang
Chungming
C
Chen
Mong-Liang
ML
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D015536:Down-Regulation; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007668:Kidney / Q000378:metabolism; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012260:Ribonucleases / Q000378:metabolism*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D012260:Ribonucleases; C490788:RIDA protein, human