Aim: To investigate the expression patterns of human differentiated embryo chondrocyte 1 (DEC1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and corresponding adjacent non-tumor and the normal liver tissues, the association between DEC1 expression and histopathological variables and the role of DEC1 in hepatocarcinogenesis.
Methods: The expression of DEC1 was detected immunohistochemically in 176 paraffin-embedded sections from 63 patients with HCC and 50 subjects with normal liver tissues.
Results: DEC1 protein was persistently expressed in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes in normal liver and HCC tissues. Compared with adjacent non-tumor liver tissues, HCC tissues showed high nuclear expression of DEC1 protein. However, high DEC1 nuclear expression was more frequently detected in well-differentiated (83.3%) than in moderately (27.3%) and poorly differentiated HCC (16.7%). Low DEC1 expression was associated with poor histological differentiation and malignancy progression. A correlation was found between the nuclear expression of DEC1 protein and histological differentiation (r = 0.376, P = 0.024).
Conclusion: DEC1 is expressed in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes and because nuclear DEC1 expression is decreased with decreasing differentiation status of HCC, nuclear DEC1 might be a marker of HCC differentiation.
Keywords: Differentiated embryo chondrocyte 1; Differentiation; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Immunohistochemistry.