Zhu M, London W T, Duan L X, Feitelson M A
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111.
Int J Cancer. 1993 Oct 21;55(4):571-6. doi: 10.1002/ijc.2910550409.
Chronic infection with hepatitis-B virus (HBV) is associated with high risk for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Several studies have implicated that the X gene product(s) of HBV are important to the pathogenesis of HCC. This study tests the hypothesis that immunohistochemical detection of hepatitis B x antigen (HBxAg) is closely associated with HCC. The patterns of HBxAg were determined by staining in tumor and non-tumor liver sections from 30 Chinese patients with HBV-associated HCC, and the results were compared with other markers of infection. HBxAg was the most prevalent marker of HBV infection both in tumor and in non-tumor tissues of HCC patients, as compared with the hepatitis-B surface and core antigens. This pattern was observed among carriers as well as several patients who were HBsAG- in serum. The HBxAg staining results were validated by Southern blotting with an X-region probe and by Western blotting with anti-HBx. These results suggest that the persistence of HBxAg is important to the pathogenesis of early HCC and that HBxAg expression in the liver during chronic HBV infection may be an important prognostic marker for the development of HCC.
慢性乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）感染与肝细胞癌（HCC）发生的高风险相关。多项研究表明，HBV的X基因产物对HCC的发病机制至关重要。本研究检验了如下假设：乙型肝炎X抗原（HBxAg）的免疫组化检测与HCC密切相关。通过对30例中国HBV相关HCC患者的肿瘤及非肿瘤肝组织切片进行染色，确定HBxAg的模式，并将结果与其他感染标志物进行比较。与乙型肝炎表面抗原和核心抗原相比，HBxAg是HCC患者肿瘤组织和非肿瘤组织中最普遍的HBV感染标志物。在携带者以及血清中HBsAG阴性的部分患者中也观察到了这种模式。通过用X区域探针进行Southern印迹和用抗HBx进行Western印迹，验证了HBxAg染色结果。这些结果表明，HBxAg的持续存在对早期HCC的发病机制很重要，并且慢性HBV感染期间肝脏中HBxAg的表达可能是HCC发生的重要预后标志物。
