Wang Wenjie, Li Huiyu, Zhou Yan, Jie Shenghua
Department of Infectious Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China Department of Infectious Diseases, Wuhan General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Center for Stem Cell Research and Application, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Cancer Biomark. 2013;13(5):351-7. doi: 10.3233/CBM-130370.
Microvesicles (MVs) are produced through the outward vesicles budding and fission from the cell surface. Recently, it was discovered that extracellular MVs circulate in bodily fluids of cancer patients and could serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers. However, the diagnostic and prognostic roles of peripheral circulating MVs for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the peripheral blood MVs could serve as potential biomarkers for detection of HCC.
Peripheral blood samples were obtained prior to treatment from 55 patients with HCC, 40 patients with liver cirrhosis and 21 healthy controls. MVs were isolated from peripheral blood by centrifugation and measured by using bicinchoninic acid assay.
Peripheral blood MVs levels were significantly elevated in HCC patients compared to those in liver cirrhosis (p< 0.001). Furthermore, MVs levels was correlated with the HCC tumor size, pathological classification and TNM stage (p< 0.01). Of note, MVs levels were significantly reduced in the 1 month post-operative blood samples when compared to those in the pre-operative samples in the 17 HCC cases tested. MVs levels did not relate to liver enzymes, AFP levels, alcohol drinking or smoking habits (p> 0.05). In contrast, serum MVs levels correlated with the age of patients, leukocytes, platelets and prothrombin time. The results of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated better performance of MVs than AFP for early detection of HCC. The areas under the ROC curve of MVs for discriminating patients with early (TNM stage I) and relatively early (TNM stage II) HCC from liver cirrhosis was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.74-0.93) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.88-1.00), respectively.
Peripheral blood MVs levels were increased in patients with HCC and associated with the progression of disease. Serum MVs might serve as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of HCC at early stage.
微泡（MVs）是通过细胞表面向外的囊泡出芽和裂变产生的。最近，人们发现细胞外微泡在癌症患者的体液中循环，并可作为潜在的诊断生物标志物。然而，外周循环微泡在肝细胞癌（HCC）中的诊断和预后作用仍不清楚。
本研究旨在探讨外周血微泡是否可作为检测肝癌的潜在生物标志物。
收集55例肝癌患者、40例肝硬化患者和21例健康对照者治疗前的外周血样本。通过离心从外周血中分离微泡，并使用二喹啉甲酸测定法进行检测。
与肝硬化患者相比，肝癌患者外周血微泡水平显著升高（p<0.001）。此外，微泡水平与肝癌肿瘤大小、病理分类和TNM分期相关（p<0.01）。值得注意的是，在检测的17例肝癌病例中，术后1个月血样中的微泡水平与术前样本相比显著降低。微泡水平与肝酶、甲胎蛋白水平、饮酒或吸烟习惯无关（p>0.05）。相反，血清微泡水平与患者年龄、白细胞、血小板和凝血酶原时间相关。受试者工作特征（ROC）分析结果表明，微泡在早期检测肝癌方面的表现优于甲胎蛋白。微泡用于区分早期（TNM分期I）和相对早期（TNM分期II）肝癌患者与肝硬化患者的ROC曲线下面积分别为0.83（95%CI：0.74-0.93）和0.94（95%CI：0.88-1.00）。
肝癌患者外周血微泡水平升高，并与疾病进展相关。血清微泡可能作为早期诊断肝癌的新型生物标志物。
