Expressions and significance of Vimentin and E-cadherin during epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocellular carcinoma tissue / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the molecular expression and clinical significance of Vimentin and E-cadherin during epithelial-mesenchymal transformation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues.Methods Hepatocellular carcinoma and paracancerous tissue were collected from 55 patients,while nonneoplastic nonnal liver tissue were collected from 20 patients without cancerous diseases as control group.Expressions of Vimentin and E-cadherin were examined by immunohistochemistry staining.Clinicopathological features of the relative expression of Vimentin and E-cadherin,and its influence on prognosis were discussed as well.Results Vimentin was positively expressed in 69.1％ cancer tissue,and was significantly higher than paracancerous tissues and normal liver tissues(P ＜ 0.05).E-cadherin was positively expressed in 27.3％ cancer tissue and was significantly lower compared with paracancerous tissues and normal liver tissues(P ＜0.05).The expression of Vimentin and E-cadherin was negatively correlated(r =-0.653,P ＜ 0.05).Vimentin expressions in subgroups of TNM stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ,poor differentiation,multiple tumor nodules,metastasis and recurrence were all significantly higher than the respective subgroups as TNM stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ] (x2 =7.267,P ＜ 0.05),moderate to well differentiation (x2 =4.045,P ＜ 0.05),single tumor node (x2=12.143,P ＜0.05),without metastasis or recurrence (x2 =7.267,P ＜ 0.05).On the contrary,Ecadherin showed higher expression in the subgroup of single tumor node compared with multiple tumor nodules(x2 =6.878,P ＜ 0.05).The follow-up of patients further demonstrated that patients with positive Vimentin expression had a significantly lower disease-free survival compared with the Vimentin negative group (P ＜0.05).Conclusions Vimentin and E-cadherin both participated in epithelial-mesenchymal transition process of hepatocellular carcinoma.High expression of Vimentin and low expression of E-cadherin were closely correlated with occurrence and development of HCC.Vimentin and E-cadherin may serve as impottant biomarkers in clinical diagnosis and prognosis prediction of HCC.