Expression and significance of E-cadherin and Snail in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To detect the expression of E-cadherin and Snail in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and investigate their roles in HCC genesis and development.Methods The expression levels of E-cadherin and Snail mRNA were detected by using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) in 36 pairs of HCC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues.The significance and correlation of them in HCC were analyzed.Results E-cadherin mRNA expression was significantly down-regulated in HCC tissues as compared with matched adjacent non-cancerous tissues (0.41 ±0.18 vs.1.00 ± 0.14,P ＜0.01),and Snail mRNA expression was significantly higher in HCC tissues than in matched adjacent non-cancerous tissues (1.78 ±0.34 vs.1.00 ±0.25,P ＜0.01).The expression levels of E-cadherin and Snail mRNA were significantly correlated with intrahepatic metastasis,capsular invasion,vascular invasion and tumor grade in HCC (P ＜ 0.05).There was a negative correlation between the expression of E-cadherin and Snail in HCC (r =-0.835,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion E-cadherin and Snail were significantly correlated with invasion and metastasis of HCC.E-cadherin and Snail likely play important roles in invasion and metastasis of HCC. Key words: Carcinoma, hepatocellular; E-cadherin; Snail