Demonstration of a novel cellular retinol-binding protein, F-type, in hepatocellular carcinoma

Vitamin A level and the cytosol-binding proteins specific for vitamin A ere studied in human tumor and its surrounding tissue. The tissues examined were 10 hepatocellular carcinomas which were surgically removed, 4 other malignant tumors (2 metastatic liver cancer and one each of gastric cancer and glioma), and 3 human fetal livers. Compared with surrounding tissues, considerable decrease of vitamin A content was observed in the hepatocellular carcinoma suggesting local deficient state of the vitamin. In addition to cellular retinol-binding protein (CRBP) and retinoic acid-binding protein (CRABP), a new molecular species having affinity for both retinol and retinoic acid was detected in the cytosols obtained from hepatocellular carcinoma as well as glioma by means of gel filtration on Sephadex G-75. With regard to ligand specificity, the protein was found to be similar to cellular retinol-binding protein, F-type or CRBP(F) which was originally recognized in the fish eye cytosol. Since the protein was also demonstrated in human fetal liver, CRBP(F) is considered to be an oncofetal protein in nature. The present study further revealed that CRBP(F) was detected in 80% of hepatocellular carcinoma (whereas plasma alpha-fetoprotein was significantly elevated only in 50%), and hepatocellular carcinoma contained CRBP(F) in a larger amount than CRABP.