Expression and significance of pituitary tumor-transforming gene 1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression and significance of pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG) 1 in the liver tissues of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods 60 HCC pathological tissues of patients undergoing hepatectomy from July 2011 to December 2016 and 15 fresh HCC and para-cancerous tissues of patients undergoing hepatectomy from June to December 2016 in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University were collected. The informed consents of all patients were obtained and the local ethical committee approval was received. Normal liver tissues distant from the hemangioma of 24 patients undergoing lobectomy were collected as normal controls. The expression level of PTTG1 in HCC tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry, Western blot and RT-PCR. The correlation between expression levels of PTTG1 and clinical parameters of patients were analyzed using t test, Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The rate comparison was conducted by Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. Results Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that the positive rate of PTTG1 in HCC tissues and para-cancerous tissues were 65% (5%, 80%) and 3% (2%, 6%), significantly higher than 2% (1%, 2%) in normal control tissues (Z=6.644, 3.876; P<0.05). Western blot revealed that the relative expression levels of PTTG1 in HCC tissues and para-cancerous tissues were 0.88 (0.80, 1.78) and 0.83 (0.53, 1.27), significantly higher than 0.36 (0.20, 0.62) in normal control tissues (Z=3.223, 2.605; P<0.05). RT-PCR showed that the relative expression of PTTG1 mRNA in HCC tissues was 3.09 (1.46, 4.77), significantly higher than 0.90 (0.62, 1.14) in para-cancerous tissues (Z=2.605, P<0.05). In HCC tissues, the expression of PTTG1 protein was correlated with the degree of differentiation (χ2=3.849, P<0.05). The PTTG1 expression in para-cancerous tissues was correlated with age, serum level of α-L-fucosidase and tumor size (t=2.463, χ2=4.342, 6.070; P<0.05). Conclusions PTTG1 is highly expressed in HCC tissues. The expression of PTTG1 protein is correlated with the serum level of α-L-fucosidase, tumor size and degree of differentiation in HCC patients. Key words: Pituitary tumor-transforming gene 1; Carcinoma, hepatocellular; alpha-L-fucosidase