Clinical significance of mRNA expression in chronic hepatitis C or liver cirrhosis.

We have previously reported that () is associated with the postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Based on this fact, we verified whether mRNA expression is also associated with HCC development from chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and liver cirrhosis (LC). There were 142 cases with CHC or LC who underwent liver biopsy. Detection of mRNA in liver was performed by RT-qPCR using frozen liver biopsy tissues. We examined the association between the mRNA expression and clinical conditions and long-term outcome. We then examined the association between serum cytokine/chemokine levels and mRNA expression in 58 cases. The cumulative incidence rates of HCC development in cases with mRNA in the low expression group showed significantly lower than those in the high expression group ( = 0.0391). A significant correlation was found between mRNA expression and the extent of proliferation of atypical hepatocytes in hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections (<0.0001). mRNA expression has been associated with cytokines involved in tumorigenesis in experimental and human cancers. We found that cases with high mRNA expression were at risk for developing HCC, even if they were CHC or LC.