[Preliminary study on the expression of cystatin C in primary liver cancer].
OBJECTIVE
To preliminarily investigate the expression of cysteine proteinase inhibitors C (cystatin C) in primary hepatic carcinoma.


METHODS
Hepatic tissue samples and peripheral blood samples were collected from 41 cases of primary hepatic carcinoma, 24 cases of cirrhosis and 40 cases of normal control. To primary hepatic carcinoma, three kinds of hepatic tissue samples were harvested, including carcinoma tissue, adjacent non-tumor tissue, and distant normal tissue. The expression levels of cystatin C in hepatic samples and blood samples were measured by immunohistochemistry method and latex enhanced immune turbidimetric method respectively, and the differences of cystatin C expressions were compared in primary hepatic cancer, cirrhosis, and normal control. Furthermore, the relationships of cystatin C expression with tumor size, intrahepatic metastasis, serum AFP level were studied with correlation analysis.


RESULTS
The expression of cystatin C was positive, in primary hepatic carcinoma. Part of adjacent non-tumor tissue, and distant normal tissue and cirrhosis tissues had some degree of cyctatin C expression. Wilcoxon test showed that the differences of cyctatin C expression in different hepatic tissues were statistics significance (P < 0.01). The proportion of positive cell, staining intensity, and the product of these two was: carcinoma tissues > adjacent non-tumor tissues> cirrhosis tissues > distant normal tissue. Compared with normal control, primary hepatic carcinoma and cirrhosis both had higher serum cystatin C level (P < 0.001), but there was no difference between hepatic carcinoma and cirrhosis (P = 0.769). The correlation analysis showed that the level of serum cystatin C was not related to serum AFP, tumor size, or intrahepatic metastasis.


CONCLUSIONS
The expression of cystatin C in primary hepatic carcinoma is higher than that of adjacent non-tumor tissue, distant normal tissue, and cirrohsis tissue. The serum cystatin C level of primary hepatic carcinoma is higher than that of normal control.
Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
He
H
He
Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Rui-Xue
RX
Lü
Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Jin
J
Xu
Department of General Practice Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Li-Bo
LB
Liang
Department of General Practice Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Ming-Feng
MF
Zhang
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Zhen-Mei
ZM
An
Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Heng-Jian
HJ
Huang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D055316:Cystatin C / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D055316:Cystatin C