Expression of Survivin in hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship with the invasion and metastasis

Objective To investigate the expression of Survivin in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)and its relationship with the invasion and metastasis of HCC.Methods Four HCC cell lines and 35 HCC specimens with their neighboring noncancerous tissues were obtained.Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect Survivin mRNA levels.Western blot was used to assay the protein expression of Sur- vivin.Results Survivin mRNA expression was gradually increased with the increase of invasion and me- tastasis ability in four HCC cell lines(P0.01).The expression of Survivin mRNA was highest in the cell line HCCLM6.Survivin mRNA expression was detected in HCC tissues,in contrast,no expression of Survivin was detected in corresponding noncancerous tissues.Survivin expression relative amount in cases of intrahepatic metastasis was 1.082±0.213,higher than that without intrahepatic metastasis(0.799± 0.324,P0.05).The levels of Survivin protein in cases of intrahepatic metastasis(0.892±0.198)were significantly higher than those without intrahepatie metastasis(0.342±0.237,P0.05).Conclusion The expression of Survivin in HCC might have a close relationship with invasion and metastasis.The high expression of Survivin may act as an important index to indicate the process of the invasion and metastasis in HCC.