Objective: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of Ephrin-A1 mRNA and protein expression level in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Methods: Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry technique were used to detect the expression of the Ephrin-A1 mRNA and protein of 40 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and their corresponding para-cancerous tissues and 10 cases of normal liver tissues. The relationships with its clinical pathology characters were analyzed.
Results: The mRNA of Ephrin-A1 was expressed in all of the 40 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and their corresponding para-cancerous tissues and 10 cases of normal liver tissues. Semiquantitative analysis showed that the mRNA expression level of Ephrin-A1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (0.5413 +/- 0.1527) was greater than that in corresponding para-cancerous tissues (0.3895 +/- 0.0549, P < 0.05) and normal liver tissues (0.3770 +/- 0.1055, P < 0.05); but between corresponding para-cancerous tissues (0.3895 +/- 0.0549) and normal liver tissues (0.3770 +/- 0.1055), the mRNA expression level had no significant difference (P > 0.05). The positive rates of Ephrin-A1 protein were 20% (2/10) in normal tissues, 35% (14/40) in para-cancerous tissues and 62% (25/40) in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, respectively; the protein expression level of Ephrin-A1 was gradually rising (chi(2) = 14.762, P < 0.05). The overexpression of Ephrin-A1 protein was correlated with histological differentiation, tumor thrombi in portal vein and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: The overexpression of Ephrin-A1 protein is correlated with histological differentiation, the lymph node metastasis and tumor thrombi in portal vein. It indicates that Ephrin-A1 may play an important role in the malignancy transformation, invasion progression and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.