Objective: To study the correlation between the expression of caveolin-1 in hepatitis B-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the relationship thereof with the invasive and metastatic ability of HCC.
Methods: Real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of caveolin-1 in 123 specimens of HCC tissues obtained during operation. Human HCC cells of the lines MHCC-97L and MHCC-97H were cultured, and Western-blotting was used to detect the caveolin-1 expression in these cells.
Results: The expression level of caveolin-1 in the HCC tissues was significantly lower than that of the adjacent noncancerous tissues (P = 0.026). The caveolin-1 mRNA expression in the HBV-related HCC cells was negatively correlated with the tumor size, expression of AFP, major venous invasion, being single or multiple, pTNM staging, and HBx expression level, factors closed to the prognosis of HCC. The caveolin-1 protein expression of the MHCC-97H cells was significantly lower than that of the MHCC-97L cells.
Conclusion: Caveolin-1 expression is associated with the invasive and metastatic ability of HCC, low expression of caveolin-1 shows poor prognosis of HCC, and caveolin-1 is probably down-regulated by HBx protein.