Expression and significance of HBx protein in HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma and its impacts on prognosis / 中华普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the relationship between the expression of HBx protein in HBV-related HCC samples and the clinical implications.Methods Elivision two-step was used in this study to detect the expression level of HBx protein in 40 HCC tissues,corresponding para-tumorous tissues from patients with HBV-related HCC undergoing curative hepatectomy.The relationship between HBx protein and clinical parameters (such as gender,age,TNM stage,HBV-DNA load,AFP,liver cirrhosis,a merger of vascular invasion,tumor infiltrating lymphocytes,Edmondson-Steiner histopathological grading,with or without relapse within 24 months) were analyzed.Results (1) The expression of HBx protein in the tumorous tissues was significantly lower than that of para-tumorous tissues (P ＜ 0.05).(2) In the tissues of para-tumorous,the expression of HBx protein in group HBV-DNA ＜ 500 IU/ml was significantly lower than that of group HBV-DNA≥500 IU/ml (P ＜0.05).There were no significant differences in the expression of HBx protein irrespective of gender,age,cirrhosis and the AFP level.(3) In the tissues of tumorous,the expression of HBx protein in group with vascular invasion was significantly higher than that of group without vascular invasion (P ＜ 0.05).However,there were no significant differences in the expression of HBx protein among the factors of TNM stage and Edmondson-Steiner histopathology grading.(4) In para-tumorous tissues,the expression of HBx protein in group of lymphocytic infiltration was significantly higher than that without lymphocytic infiltration (P ＜ 0.05).In the tissues of tumorous,the expression of HBx protein in disease-free survival (DFS) ＜ 24M patients was significantly higher than DFS ≥ 24M (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions High HBx expression in tumor tissues indicates poor prognosis while that in para-tumorous tissues predicts a better prognosis.