title: Expression of HLA-G in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is a non-classical major histocompatibility complex class I molecule that has multiple immune regulatory functions including the induction of immune tolerance. The detection of HLA-G expression might serve as a clinical marker in the prediction of clinical outcomes for certain types of carcinoma. Currently, we investigated whether or not HLA-G is also expressed in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and whether the expression has clinical value.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum levels of secreted HLA-G (sHLA-G) were measured by ELISA in 36 patients with HCC, 25 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) and 25 healthy individuals. The expression of HLA-G in liver tissue was further studied using Western blotting in 36 patients with HCC and 25 with LC. The correlations between HLA-G status and various clinicopathological parameters including survival were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ELISA assay showed that the serum levels of sHLA-G in the HCC, LC and healthy groups were 132.6+/-31.4, 63.5+/-22.1, and 47.0+/-15.5 U/ml, respectively. Analysis of variance was used for inter-group comparison and differences were found between the HCC group and the other two groups (both P<0.01), while no difference was found between the LC group and the healthy group (P=0.112). HLA-G protein expression in liver tissue was found in 66.7% (24/36) of the primary sites of HCC, but not in benign lesions (LC). Further, the HLA-G expression in tumors had no significant correlation with the parameters of age, gender, histological grade and alpha-fetoprotein level. However, patients with HLA-G-positive tumors had a shorter postoperative survival time than those with HLA-G-negative tumors (P=0.014). Also, univariate analysis showed that HLA-G was an independent prognostic factor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicated that the expression of HLA-G was a characteristic feature of HCC and patients with positive expression of HLA-G in malignant liver tissue had a poor prognosis.
authors: Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Key Laboratory of Combined Multi-organ Transplantation, Ministry of Public Health, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Zhou
authors: Z
authors: Ye
authors: Xue-Qin
authors: XQ
authors: Meng
authors: Shu-Sen
authors: SS
authors: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D059951:HLA-G Antigens; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D059951:HLA-G Antigens; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins