Expression and significance of heparanase and nm23-H1 in hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: To explore the relation between heparanase (HPA) and nm23-H1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and whether they could be used as valuable markers in predicting post-operative metastasis and recurrence of HCC. METHODS: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry (S-P method) were used to measure the expressions of HPA mRNA and nm23-H1 protein in primary tumor tissue and paracancerous tissue of 33 cases of HCC. Paracancerous tissues of 9 cases of benign liver tumor were used as normal controls. The results were analyzed in combination with the results of clinicopathological examination and follow-up. RESULTS: The positive expression of HPA gene was significantly higher in primary tumor tissues of HCC (48.5%, 16/33) as compared to the paracancerous tissues of HCC and normal controls (3.03%, 1/33) (P 0.05). The positive rates of nm23-H1 in the group with high tendency to metastasis and recurrence and in patients with metastasis or recurrence during the follow-up were obviously higher than those in the group with low tendency to metastasis and recurrence (P = 0.018) and in the patients without metastasis and recurrence (P = 0.024); but no significant difference was found between HPA positive and negative groups (P = 0.082). According to the results of follow-up, the rate of accuracy in predicting metastasis of positive HPA, negative nm23-H1 and combination of positive HPA with negative nm23-H1 was 78.6% (11/14), 68.8% (11/16) and 88.9% (8/9), respectively. CONCLUSION: Expression of HPA and/or nm23-H1 is related with metastasis and recurrence of HCC. Detection of the expression rate of HPA and nm23-H1 may help increase the accuracy in predicting post-operative metastasis and recurrence of HCC.