Qu Zhen, Jiang Yong, Xu Ming, Lu Ming Zhu, Zhou Bin, Ding Yitao
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Drum Tower Hospital, Medicine School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Changzhou 1st People's Hospital, Jiangsu, China.
Arch Med Sci. 2015 Oct 12;11(5):978-81. doi: 10.5114/aoms.2015.54852.
Uncontrolled angiogenesis plays an essential role in the occurrence, metastasis and malignant progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to investigate the expression of adrenomedullin (ADM) in human HCC and its correlation with the expression of erythropoietin receptor (EPOR), microvessel density (MVD) and the tumor pathological characteristics.
Fresh tumor tissues were obtained from 30 HCC patients after hepatectomy. Ten cirrhotic and 10 normal liver tissues were included as controls. Expression of ADM and EPOR was determined by real-time PCR. The MVD was determined by counting the number of microvessels.
The MVD and the mRNA levels of ADM and EPOR in cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in the non-cancer tissues (p < 0.05). Expression of ADM was significantly correlated with the MVD and EPOR (r = 0.68 and 0.74, p < 0.01). Adrenomedullin and EPOR mRNA levels in HCC tissues were correlated with capsule invasion, pathological differentiation and tumor metastasis (p < 0.05).
Our findings suggest that ADM and EPOR may serve as new regulatory factors involved in angiogenesis of HCC and represent novel targets for the treatment of HCC.
不受控制的血管生成在肝细胞癌（HCC）的发生、转移及恶性进展中起重要作用。本研究旨在探讨肾上腺髓质素（ADM）在人肝癌组织中的表达及其与促红细胞生成素受体（EPOR）表达、微血管密度（MVD）和肿瘤病理特征的相关性。
从30例肝癌患者肝切除术后获取新鲜肿瘤组织。选取10例肝硬化组织和10例正常肝组织作为对照。采用实时定量PCR法检测ADM和EPOR的表达。通过计数微血管数量测定MVD。
癌组织中的MVD以及ADM和EPOR的mRNA水平显著高于非癌组织（p < 0.05）。ADM的表达与MVD和EPOR显著相关（r = 0.68和0.74，p < 0.01）。肝癌组织中肾上腺髓质素和EPOR mRNA水平与包膜侵犯、病理分化及肿瘤转移相关（p < 0.05）。
我们的研究结果表明，ADM和EPOR可能作为参与肝癌血管生成的新调节因子，并代表肝癌治疗的新靶点。
