Background & objective: Previous studies showed that expression of phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN), gap junction protein connexin 43 (Cx43) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may play an important role in tumor occurrence and progression. This study was designed to investigate the relationship among the protein expression of PTEN, Cx43, and VEGF in carcinogenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods: The expression of PTEN, Cx43 and VEGF were determined in 47 cases of HCC by streptavidin peroxidase immunohistochemistry.
Results: In the hepatocellular carcinoma, the total positive rates of PTEN, Cx43 and VEGF were 76.4%, 42.6%, and 70.2%, respectively. With progression of tumor course, PTEN and Cx43 positive rates decreased (P< 0.05), but the VEGF positive rate significantly increased (P=0.001). In comparison with the group of intrahepatic vascular embolism, PTEN positive rate increased apparently in the group without intrahepatic vascular embolism (P=0.006). Cx43 positive rate was lower in the group with cirrhosis background than that in the group without cirrhosis background (Chi(2)=4.713 5, P=0.03). No significant difference of PTEN positive rate was observed in tumor size, differentiation degree in cancerous tissue and cirrhosis background, Cx43 positive rate in tumor size, differentiation degree in cancerous tissue and intrahepatic vascular embolism, VEGF positive rate in tumor size, differentiation degree in cancerous tissue, cirrhosis background and intrahepatic vascular embolism. Correlation analysis revealed that PTEN positive rate was positively correlated with Cx43 positive rate (Cramer's V=0.394 9, P=0.023), negatively correlated with VEGF positive rate (Cramer's V=0.393 7,P=0.024), but no significant association was observed between Cx43 positive rate and VEGF positive rate (Cramer's V=0.307 2, P=0.064).
Conclusion: The aberrant expression of PTEN, Cx43, and VEGF may play a role in occurrence, progression, and intrahepatic metastasis of the hepatocellular carcinoma. Determining the expression of PTEN, Cx43, and VEGF may contribute to synthetically evaluating the biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma.