Expression and significance of p21 and p53 in hepatocellular carcinoma with both hepatitis B virus infection and aflatoxin exposion

Objective To explore the expression and significance of p53 and p21 protein in hepatocellular carcinomas(HCC)that were with both hepatitis B virus(HBV)infection and aflatoxin exposion.Methods The expression levels of p53 and p21 protein were examined by immunohistochemical(IHC)S-P method in 67 cases of pathologically proved HCC,and in 11 cases of normal liver tissue which were used as comparison.Results The positive expression rates of p53 and p21 in HCC tissues were 79.1%(53/67)and 44.8%(30/67)respectively.The positive rates of p53 in experimental group,control group A and B were 95.2%(40/42),20.0%(2/10)and 73.3%(11/15)respectively.The positive rates of p21 in experimental group,control group A and B were 45.2%(19/42),60.0%(6/10)and 33.3%(5/15)respectively.The differences of p53 expression between the experimental group and the two control groups were statistical significant(P0.05).The differences of p21 expression between the experimental group and the two control groups presented no statistical significance(P0.05).The expressions of p53 and p21 in HCC tissue were weakly and negatively correlated,which had no statistical significance.The correlations among the expression rates of p53 and p21 in experimental group,control group A and B had no statistical significance.Both p53 and P21 were negative in all of the normal liver tissues.Conclusions During the process of hepatocarcinogenesis,p53 has a high expression rate and multifunction on promoting or inhibiting P21 expression,which might be caused by the synergistic effect of HBV and aflatoxin.