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Expression of insulin-like growth factor II and its receptor in liver cells from patients with chronic liver diseases
1Dong-Hua Yang, Chong Xiu, Bo Yang, Department of Gastroenterology, Zhujiang Hospital, The First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, Guangdong Province, China.
Aim:
To study the relationship between insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II), IGF-II receptor, and chronic liver diseases and to investigate the clinical mechanisms of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development.
Methods:
We analyzed IGF-II and IGF-II receptor poly (A)+ mRNA in dysplasia liver cell (DLC; n = 10), liver cirrhosis (LC; n = 9), and chronic active hepatitis (CAH; n = 9) specimens by Northern blot using human IGF-II and IGF-II receptor DNA probes labeled with (32) P through nick translation.
Results:
Expression of IGF-II in DLC samples (10/10, 100%) was higher than in CAH (3/9, 33%) and LC samples (3/9, 33%) (P < 0.01). Expression of IGF-II receptor in DLC samples (7/10, 70%) was significantly higher than in CAH (2/9, 22%) and LC samples (3/9, 33%). Data on hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection status from different chronic liver disease samples were also analyzed.
Conclusion:
Overexpression of IGF-II and IGF-II receptor in DLC samples was associated with a preceding step to malignant phenotype hepatocyte transformation and may be of diagnostic value for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Persistent HBV infection was strongly associated with abnormal IGF-II and IGF-II receptor mRNA expression, suggesting that an autocrine or paracrine mechanism is involved in the regulation of growth in liver cell carcinogenesis.
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