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Updated: Oct 15, 2026
Cerebellar Regional Dissection for Molecular Analysis
Published on: December 5, 2020
Quantitative analysis of aldolase A mRNA in liver discriminates between hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis
G Castaldo1, G Calcagno, R Sibillo
1Dipartimento di Biochimica e Biotecnologie Mediche and CEINGE scarl, Cattedra di Gastroenterologia, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Napoli "Federico II", I-80131 Naples, Italy.
Background:
Chronic liver diseases can progress to cirrhosis and to hepatocellular carcinoma. Timely and unequivocal recognition of the neoplastic evolution of cirrhosis is critical. To this aim, we used a noncompetitive reverse transcription-PCR procedure to analyze aldolase A mRNA in liver tissue from patients with chronic liver diseases at different stages.
Methods:
We studied 12 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, 19 patients affected by chronic hepatitis C or cirrhosis, and 7 healthy controls. Aldolase A mRNA was reverse-transcribed to cDNA, which was then amplified by PCR. The amplified segments were "read" with a novel dot-blot procedure. A calibrator with the same sequence, synthesized in vitro using a T7 phage promoter, was processed at scalar dilutions in parallel to the target samples to generate a calibration curve and so quantify the target mRNA (detection limit, 0.03 amol; linearity spanning five orders of magnitude).
Results:
Aldolase A mRNA was approximately 10-fold higher in liver biopsies from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma vs patients with chronic hepatitis C or cirrhosis, and healthy individuals. Furthermore, aldolase A mRNA concentrations were 1.2- to 21.3-fold higher in 12 liver biopsies compared with the paired surrounding cirrhotic tissue.
Conclusions:
The quantitative analysis of liver tissue aldolase A mRNA differentiates between nonneoplastic chronic liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma, which suggests that it has diagnostic potential.
