Plasma transforming growth factor-beta 1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Comparison with chronic liver diseases.

Abstract

Many kinds of human malignant tissue, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), were reported to overexpress transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) gene. However, little work has been done on the circulating TGF-beta 1 in patients with malignant tumors. Plasma TGF-beta 1 levels in patients with HCC (n = 26) were compared with those in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) (n = 12) and cirrhosis (n = 11) and in normal subjects (n = 20) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system after acid/ethanol extraction. The patients with HCC had significantly higher plasma TGF-beta 1 levels (19.3 +/- 19.5 ng/ml; mean +/- standard deviation [SD]) than those in normal subjects (1.4 +/- 0.8 ng/ml) and in patients with CH (3.0 +/- 3.1 ng/ml) and cirrhosis (3.7 +/- 2.1 ng/ml) (P < 0.01). Plasma TGF-beta 1 concentrations in the patients with cirrhosis were also significantly higher than those in the normal subjects (P < 0.05). The extracted plasma TGF-beta 1 from the patients with HCC had biologic activity according to a growth inhibitory assay using mink lung epithelial cells. No significant correlation was found between the plasma TGF-beta 1 levels in the patients with HCC and serum alpha-fetoprotein levels. After successful treatment for HCC, the amount of plasma TGF-beta 1 significantly decreased from 22.6 plus or minus 16.7 ng/ml (mean +/- SD) to 10.2 plus or minus 6.5 ng/ml (P < 0.05). We demonstrated higher levels of plasma TGF-beta 1 in the patients with HCC than those in patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Plasma TGF-beta 1 might be a candidate for a novel tumor marker for hepatocellular carcinoma.