title: Expression and clinical significance of Nectin-4 in hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Nectin-4 is a member of the Nectin family of four Ca(+)-independent immunoglobulin-like cell adhesion molecules and implicated in cell adhesion, movement, proliferation, differentiation, polarization, and survival. The aberrant expression of Nectin-4 has been found in a variety of tumors; however, its expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still poorly understood. This study was to investigate the expression of Nectin-4 and its clinical significance in the patients with HCC.
  
  
  METHODS
  The expression of Nectin-4 was assessed at mRNA and protein levels by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting assays in 20 HCC specimens and adjacent non-tumor live tissues. Furthermore, the clinical significance of Nectin-4 in 87 cases of HCC was confirmed by immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mRNA and protein levels of Nectin-4 were higher in HCC tumor tissues than in the matched non-tumor tissues. Nectin-4 was located in the cytoplasm of tumor cells and over-expressed in 67.82% (59/87) HCC tissues by immunohistochemical staining. Positive Nectin-4 expression was significantly correlated with tumor size (P=0.029), status of metastasis (P=0.023), vascular invasion (P=0.018) and tumor-node-metastasis stage (P=0.003). In addition, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that positive Nectin-4 expression was associated with worse recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) (P=0.006 and P=0.005, respectively). In multivariate analysis, Nectin-4 was an independent prognostic factor for RFS and OS in the patients with HCC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nectin-4 is upregulated in HCC and may be a novel prognostic biomarker for the patients after surgical resection.
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China; Department of Hepatic Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Medical Center, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: ZhiYong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China; Department of Hepatic Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: WenBin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: QiYang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: TingTing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: ZhiJun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China; Department of Hepatic Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: ChuanHai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China; Department of Hepatic Surgery, Affiliated Provincial Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: GeLiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
keywords: Nectin-4; RT-PCR; Western blot; hepatocellular carcinoma; immunohistochemistry; prognostic marker