Eagon P K, Francavilla A, DiLeo A, Elm M S, Gennari L, Mazzaferro V, Colella G, Van Thiel D H, Strazl T E
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Dig Dis Sci. 1991 Sep;36(9):1303-8. doi: 10.1007/BF01307527.
Sex hormones have been shown to influence the development and course of several liver diseases. The worldwide predominance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in males has led to the suggestion that this disease might be hormone-responsive. Therefore, the hepatic estrogen (ER) and androgen receptor (AR) status of liver specimens from such patients was investigated. Samples were obtained from three female and six males patients undergoing liver resection; in each case, a small sample of both the tumor and adjacent normal tissue was collected. All patients had primary hepatocellular carcinoma without cirrhosis. In most cases, the tumor and the normal specimen had an equivalent content of cytosolic ER; however, three of the tumor samples (one female and two male) displayed considerably elevated cytosolic ER levels as compared to that of the normal tissue. In every sample, the tumor contained less nuclear ER than did the normal liver. When AR was measured, tumors of three patients (one female and two male) demonstrated a twofold elevation in cytosolic AR as compared to adjacent normal tissue. In the two male patients, an approximately twofold greater nuclear AR was found. Two other samples from male patients showed a modest elevation of cytosolic AR in the tumors. The patients whose tumors showed elevations in ER were not the same patients as those in whom the AR was elevated. Thus, these studies indicate that certain, but not all, specimens of HCC demonstrate either elevated ER or AR and suggest that a determination of receptor content might be useful prior to initiation of certain antihormone therapies.
性激素已被证明会影响几种肝脏疾病的发展和进程。肝细胞癌（HCC）在全球男性中占主导地位，这表明这种疾病可能对激素有反应。因此，对这类患者肝脏标本中的雌激素受体（ER）和雄激素受体（AR）状态进行了研究。样本取自三名接受肝脏切除术的女性患者和六名男性患者；在每种情况下，都采集了肿瘤组织和相邻正常组织的一小部分样本。所有患者均患有无肝硬化的原发性肝细胞癌。在大多数情况下，肿瘤组织和正常标本的胞质ER含量相当；然而，与正常组织相比，三个肿瘤样本（一名女性和两名男性）的胞质ER水平显著升高。在每个样本中，肿瘤组织中的核ER含量均低于正常肝脏。测量AR时，三名患者（一名女性和两名男性）的肿瘤组织胞质AR水平相较于相邻正常组织升高了两倍。在两名男性患者中，发现核AR含量大约高出两倍。另外两名男性患者的肿瘤组织胞质AR有适度升高。肿瘤组织中ER升高的患者与AR升高的患者不同。因此，这些研究表明，某些（但并非所有）HCC标本显示出ER或AR升高，这表明在开始某些抗激素治疗之前，测定受体含量可能有用。
