Expression of CD146 mRNA and its clinical significance in hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective: To explore the expression of CD146 mRNA and its clinical significance in human hepatocellalar carcinoma (HCC) tissues. Methods: Real time polymerase chain reaction (real time PCR,RT-PCR) was employed to determine the expression of CD146 mRNA in 70 cancerous and paracancerous tissues in patients with HCC and compared with 18 liver tissure of non-HCC. Results: The expression level of CD146 mRNA in the HCC tissue (0.044+0.0178) was markedly higher than the paracancerous liver tissue(0.0367±0.0121)(P0.01), the paracancerous liver tissue(0.0367±0.0121)was also higher than that in the liver tissues of non-HCC (0.0263±0.0102)(P0.05). The expression of CD146 mRNA in the human HCC tissue was closely correlated with clincal stage, the portal vein cancer embolism, extrahepatic matastasis and the recurrence of tumor, but not correlated with the number of tumor, the size of tumor, the level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in serum and tumor differentiation grade. Concluson: The results suggest that CD146 might be related with the development、progression 、metastasis and recurrence of HCC. CD146 can be severed as a marker for predicting the metastasis and recurrence in HCC.