α-smooth muscle actin with the relation of liver cancer invasion and metastasis

Objective To study on the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in liver cancer and its relation with the invasion and metastasis of liver cancer.Methods Collect liver tissues including no liver cancer tissues,liver cancer and with metastasis in portal vein; divide them into three groups in accordance with the pathologic differentiation degree:low differentiation group,medium differentiation group and high differentiation group.Use reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)to test the expression of α-SMA mRNA in the tissues of liver cancer,and use the method of immunohistochemistry to test expression of α-SMA in the cancer tissue and the tumor thrombus tissues in portal vein.Results The result of RT-PCR shows that α-SMA expression is positive in all the tissues of liver cancer; the result of immunohistochemistry shows that the expression values of the control liver tissues,tissues with liver cancer and tumor thrombus tissues in portal vein are 125.69 ±29.17,187.43 ± 17.66 and 218.70 ±13.52 respectively,Variance analysis shows that the difference of α-SMA expression has statistically significance (P ＜0.01 ),of which,tumor thrombus tissues in portal vein have the highest expression value; the expression values of low differentiation group,medium differentiation group and high differentiation group are 237.14 ±25.83,190.57 ± 19.90 and 165.67 ±22.64 respectively.The variance analysis shows that the difference of α-SMA expression has statistically significance ( P ＜ 0.01 ),which is the highest in the low differentiation group.Conclusion There is a significant increase expression of α-SMA in liver cancer,especially in the group of tumor thrombus tissues in portal vein and the low differentiation group.It is related to the invasion and metastasis of liver cancer. Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma;  a-smooth muscle actin;  Tumor metastasis