Background: The peritumoral environment has been implicated to be important in the process of metastasis and recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our aims were to assess the prognostic value of proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) in HCC and investigate related molecular mechanism.
Methods: Expression of Pyk2 was tested by immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays containing 141 paired HCC samples. Correlation between Pyk2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in clinical samples was analyzed by Spearman rank correlation. Matrigel invasion, anchorage-independent growth assay and immunoblotting were performed to study the effect of Pyk2 on the invasion and progression of HCC cells and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway activation.
Results: Higher Pyk2 density in both tumor and peritumor was associated with lower overall survival (P = 0.044; P = 0.041, respectively), serum AFP levels > 1,000 ng/ml (P = 0.013; P = 0.032, respectively) and postoperative distant metastasis (both P < 0.001). However, only higher peritumoral Pyk2 density was related to lower disease-free survival (P = 0.014) and vascular invasion (P = 0.035). A significant correlation between Pyk2 and VEGF density in tumor or peritumoral liver tissue was observed (r = 0. 3133, P = 0.0002; r = 0.5176, P < 0.0001, respectively). Immunoblotting showed that Pyk2 activated PI3K-AKT pathway to upregulate VEGF expression in HL-7702, SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells.
Conclusions: High Pyk2, especially peritumoral Pyk2 was associated with poor survival, disease recurrence, and metastasis in HCC. PI3K-AKT pathway was involved in Pyk2-mediated VEGF expression during HCC progression and invasion.