Research Unit, Foundation Hospital of Jove, Gijón, Spain.
Hepatol Res. 2014 Jul;44(7):769-78. doi: 10.1111/hepr.12180. Epub 2013 Jul 10.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is in the 10 leading cancer types, being difficult to detect as most of patients who develop this tumor have no symptoms other than those related to their long-standing liver disease. The liver is constantly exposed to bacterial products, viral infection, alcohol or other products, which may be the cause of chronic liver damage, and thus an increasing risk for HCC. Toll-like receptors (TLR) have gained an extraordinary interest in cancer research due to their role in several biological processes such as innate immune responses, the induction of adaptive immune responses, regulation of inflammation, would healing and carcinogenesis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the expression and clinical relevance of TLR3, 4 and 9 in HCC.
The expression levels of TLR3, TLR4 and TLR9 were analyzed in tumors from 30 patients with HCC. The analysis was performed by immunohistochemistry. Results were correlated with various clinicopathological findings and with overall survival.
TLR3 was significantly high in large tumors (>4 cm in diameter) compared with small tumors (P < 0.05). Our results demonstrated that patients whose tumors showed both TLR4 and TLR9 positive immunostaining had poor prognosis. In addition, TLR9 expression by fibroblast-like cells was significantly associated with a shortened overall survival (P = 0.015).
The results demonstrated an association between TLR3, TLR4 and TLR9 expression and tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in HCC.
肝细胞癌（HCC）在 10 种主要癌症类型中排名靠前，由于大多数发生这种肿瘤的患者除了与其长期存在的肝脏疾病有关的症状外，没有其他症状，因此很难发现。肝脏经常暴露于细菌产物、病毒感染、酒精或其他产品中，这些可能是导致慢性肝损伤的原因，从而增加了 HCC 的风险。Toll 样受体（TLR）在癌症研究中引起了极大的兴趣，因为它们在许多生物学过程中发挥作用，如先天免疫反应、适应性免疫反应的诱导、炎症的调节、伤口愈合和癌变。因此，本研究旨在研究 TLR3、4 和 9 在 HCC 中的表达及其与临床的相关性。
对 30 例 HCC 患者的肿瘤中 TLR3、TLR4 和 TLR9 的表达水平进行了分析。通过免疫组织化学进行了分析。结果与各种临床病理发现和总生存进行了相关性分析。
与小肿瘤（直径>4cm）相比，大肿瘤（>4cm）中 TLR3 的表达明显升高（P<0.05）。我们的结果表明，同时显示 TLR4 和 TLR9 阳性免疫染色的肿瘤患者预后较差。此外，成纤维样细胞中 TLR9 的表达与总生存期缩短显著相关（P=0.015）。
结果表明 TLR3、TLR4 和 TLR9 的表达与 HCC 中的肿瘤侵袭性和不良预后之间存在关联。
