Expression of Thymidylate Synthase and Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase in Tissues from Chronic Liver Diseases and Primary Hepatocarcinoma as well as Their Clinical Significance

ObjectivesTo study the expression levels of thymidylate synthase (TS) and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in tissues from chronic liver diseases (CLD) and primary hepatocarcinoma (PHC) as well as their clinicopathological significance.MethodsTen percent formalin fixed and Paraffin routinely embedded sections of tissues from 5 cases of normal liver (NL), 24 cases of CLD and 42 cases of PHC were stained by immunohistochemical method of avidin biotin complex(ABC).ResultsThe positive rates of TS and hTERT expression in PHC cases were significantly higher than those in cases of NL, chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH),chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and liver cirrhosis (LC)(P0.05 or P0.01). The positive rates of TS and hTERT expression in cases of PHC with well differentiation, maximal diameter of mass≤5cm and without lymphnode metastasis were somewhat significantly lower than those in PHC cases showing moderate / poor grade differentiation, lymphonode metastasis and with maximal diameter of mass5cm . But both positive rates of expression were not closely related with the pathological types of PHC and serum levels of HbsAg and AFP.ConclusionThe expression levels of TS and hTERT may be important markers reflecting the carcinogenesis, progress, biological behaviors and prognosis of PHC. Detection of TS and hTERT expression in the tissues of CLD possibly has crucial clinical significance for prevention and early diagnosis of PHC.