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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Determining Bile Duct Density in the Mouse Liver
Published on: April 30, 2019
Expression of DPC4/Smad4 gene in stone-containing intrahepatic bile duct
King-Teh Lee1, Wen-Tsan Chang, Shen-Nien Wang
1Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. ktlee@kmu.edu.tw
Background And Objectives:
Hepatolithiasis is etiologically related to cholangiocarcinoma. We underwent this study with an attempt to examine the expression of DPC4/Smad4 gene in stone-containing intrahepatic bile ducts (IHD) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC).
Patients And Methods:
The immunohistochemical method and RT-PCR analysis were used to study the expression of DPC4/Smad4 gene in normal IHD, stone-containing IHD, and ICC. All the specimens were from hepatic resection.
Results:
The immunohistochemical study showed that all specimens from 24 normal IHD had marked expression of DPC4/Smad4 gene, while there was 4.4% (2/46) and 33.3% (3/9) loss of DPC4/Smad4 expression in stone-containing IHD and ICC, respectively. Among the specimens of stone-containing IHD, all the hyperplastic epithelial cells showed normal expression of DPC4/Smad4 gene while dysplastic epithelial cells showed 20% (2/10) loss expression of DPC4/Smad4. The RT-PCR analysis showed that the normal IHD had the highest content of DPC4/Smad4 mRNA, which was threefold and sixfold higher than that of stone-containing IHD and ICC, respectively.
Conclusion:
Loss expression of DPC4/Smad4 gene was found both in stone-containing IHD and ICC. Dysplastic epithelium of stone-containing IHD had higher potential for malignant transformation.
