Raising of Anillin expression in para-cancerous hepatocytes is associated with hepatic depolyploidization and short-term recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after radical operation

Nan Wang; Fengjie Hao; Yifan Zhang; Wen Xu; Yongjun Chen; Xiaochun Fei; Junqing Wang

doi:10.7150/jca.72890

Raising of Anillin expression in para-cancerous hepatocytes is associated with hepatic depolyploidization and short-term recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after radical operation

J Cancer. 2022 May 29;13(9):2729-2739. doi: 10.7150/jca.72890. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Nan Wang¹, Fengjie Hao¹, Yifan Zhang¹, Wen Xu², Yongjun Chen¹, Xiaochun Fei³, Junqing Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197, Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai 200025, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering and Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Pathology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197, Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai 200025, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Short-term recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after radical operation results in poor prognosis and short overall survival period. Assessment of the post-operational recurrence risk could provide an advantage for preventing lethal progress by assisting to set up necessarily individual adjuvant treatment. Here, on basis of our previous research on the ploidy status of hepatocytes, we detected the expression of Anillin, a pivotal regulating gene of depolyploidization in para-cancerous hepatocytes, and discussed the relation between its alternative expression and short-term recurrence of HCC patients after radical operation. Methods: One hundred and twenty-one specimens of the para-cancerous tissues from a cohort of HCC patients were collected. The RT-qPCR assay and the Immunohistochemistry assay were conducted for a thorough profile of Anillin expression, along with the analysis of patients' information from the GEO database. The clinicopathological para-maters of the patients were detected to determine the relationship between Anillin in the para--cancerous and the tumor relapse. Specimens treated with HE staining were examined for the precise count of the binuclear polyploid hepatocytes, and the karyoplasmic ratio was calculated. Results: Anillin was verified raised in the para-cancerous tissues of the patients who relapsed. The raising of Anillin in para-cancerous tissue is related to poor clinicopathologic features of HCC patients and short-term recurrence. Binuclear polyploid hepatocytes were reduced along with a higher expression of Anillin, and the proportion of high karyoplasmic ratio hepatocytes was significantly decreased. Conclusion: The raising of Anillin is associated with the depolyploidization of hepatocytes in the representation of losing binuclear hepatocytes and reducing proportion reduction of high karyoplasmic ratio hepatocytes. Measuring Anillin in para-cancerous tissue, along with the pathomorphological examination may provide us a strategy for screening high risk of HCC recurrence, and help to design individual adjuvant treatment post-operation.

Keywords: Anillin; HCC; depolyploidization; karyoplasmic ratio; tumor recurrence.