Department of Biochemistry, Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Province, Taiyuan, 030001, China.
Department of Pathology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, 39216, USA.
Hepatol Int. 2020 Jul;14(4):544-555. doi: 10.1007/s12072-020-10056-8. Epub 2020 Jun 5.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver cancer and featured with prominent disparity in incidence and mortality rate between male and female. It remains unclear whether alterations of phospholipids (PL) in hepatic tissues contribute to the pathogenesis, progression, and disparity of HCC.
Using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), PL profiles including 320 individual phospholipid species in 13 PL classes were determined in paired samples from HCC and adjacent benign hepatic tissues (BHT).
(1) Concentrations of PLs in most of individual species, in subgroups and in total were decreased in HCC than in BHT in all studied population; (2) the number of individual PL species significantly different between HCC and BHT, and the number of PLs in six subgroups and in total decreased in HCC were more in male population than in female population; (3) panels of PL parameters (more in male population than in female population) were identified as biomarkers in differentiation of HCC from BHT, and in the prediction of pathological grade and clinical stage of HCC with high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy.
It is concluded that alterations of PLs in hepatic tissues play important roles in pathogenesis, progression, and gender disparity of HCC.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是最常见的肝癌，其发病率和死亡率在男性和女性之间存在显著差异。目前尚不清楚肝组织中磷脂（PL）的改变是否有助于 HCC 的发病机制、进展和性别差异。
采用电喷雾电离质谱（ESI-MS）技术，对 13 种 PL 类别的 320 种个体磷脂物种的 PL 谱进行了测定，共采集了 HCC 及相邻良性肝组织（BHT）的配对样本。
（1）在所有研究人群中，HCC 中大多数个体物种、亚组和总 PL 的浓度均低于 BHT；（2）HCC 与 BHT 之间存在显著差异的个体 PL 物种数量以及在 6 个亚组和总 PL 中减少的数量在男性人群中均多于女性人群；（3）PL 参数谱（男性人群多于女性人群）被鉴定为区分 HCC 和 BHT 的生物标志物，以及预测 HCC 的病理分级和临床分期具有高灵敏度、特异性和准确性。
肝组织中 PL 的改变在 HCC 的发病机制、进展和性别差异中起重要作用。
