Correlation between epidermal growth factor and overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor in hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华肿瘤杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the correlation between epidermal growth factor (EGF) and overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Expressions of EGF, VEGF and microvessel density were studied through immunohistochemical SABC method in 36 HCC specimens, their paraneoplastic liver tissues and 6 normal liver tissues with the correlation between these parameters analyzed. Recombinant human EGF was used to stimulate HepG(2) cells and semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR was adopted to detect the expression of VEGF in HepG(2) cells.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The positive rates of EGF and VEGF expression in HCC tissue were 75.0% and 88.9%. There was positive correlation between EGF and VEGF expression (P < 0.01, r = 0.462). Recombinant human EGF could induce the expression of VEGF in HepG(2) cells in a dose and time dependent manner.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The expression of EGF in HCC underlies the overexpression of VEGF in HCC.</p>