The expression of survivin gene and its relationship with the proliferative activity in hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To study the expression of survivin and its relationship with the proliferative activity in hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods Using immunohistochemistry ABC methods, the expression of survivin and PCNA were evaluated in 31 hepatocellular carcinoma, 8 cirrhosis of liver and 4 normal livers tissues.Results No expression of survivin were detected in normal livers and cirrhosis of liver. In contrast, survivin protein was expressed in 19 of 31 patients with HCC(61.3%). When compared with normal livers and cirrhosis of liver, hepatocellular carcinoma had significantly more frequencies of survivin expression(P0.001).The positive rates of survivin was higher in poorly-differentiated than in well-differentiated HCC. Furthermore, survivin-positive HCC had higher PCNA-LI than that of survivin-negative HCC(P0.05).Conclusions The expression of survivin gene is increased in HCC and related to the poor differentiation, higher proliferation potential of HCC, may be involved in the onset and progression of HCC. Survivin could be a new diagnostic/therapeutic target in HCC.