Abstract:

Objective    To investigate expressions of metastasis-associated 1(MTA1), nm23 and cmyc in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and corresponding tumor-adjacent tissues, and to explore their correlations with invasion, metastasis and biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods    Expressions of MTA1, nm23 and c-myc proteins were detected in 60 hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and corresponding tumoradjacent tissues by immunohistochemistry. Relationships between their expressions and clinical pathological features were analyzed. Results    ① Expressions of MTA1 and cmyc proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues were significantly higher than those in corresponding tumor-adjacent tissues（P<0.01）, while expression of the nm23 protein in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues was significantly lower than that in corresponding tumor-adjacent tissues（P<0.01）. ② High expressions of MTA1 and c-myc proteins and low expression of the nm23 protein were associated with tumor differentiation, intrahepatic metastasis, extrahepatic metastasis and portal vein tumor thrombus（P<0.05）.  In addition, high expression of the MTA1 protein and low expression of the nm23 protein were related to the level of HBsAg（P<0.05）,  and high expression of the c-myc protein was related to presence or absence of the tumor capsule（P<0.05）.  ③ Spearman correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between expressions of MTA1 and nm23 (rs=-0.625, P<0.01), and a positivecorrelation between expressions of MTA1 and cmyc(rs =0.392, P<0.05), while there was no significant correlation between expressions of nm23 and c-myc. Conclusions    High expressions of MTA1 and cmyc proteins and low expression of the nm23 protein were closely associated with invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Combined detection of the three indexes can be used to estimate the biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma, and be helpful in  basic research and clinical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Key words: Metastasis-associated 1; nm23; c-myc; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Invasion; Metastasis; Immunohistochemistry