Mutations in the P10 region of procaspase-8 lead to chemotherapy resistance in acute myeloid leukemia by impairing procaspase-8 dimerization

Caspase-8 activation initiates apoptotic signaling cascades, and certain mutations in procasepase-8 have been reported to be associated with the progression and prognosis of different types of tumors. In this study, we have identified four novel mutations, which are highly correlated with chemotherapy resistance and poor prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, within the P10 subunit of procaspase-8. These newly discovered mutations cause premature termination of translation, resulting in truncated procaspase-8 protein, which is incapable of forming dimer to initiate apoptosis signaling pathway. Further biochemical analysis reveals that the segment of P10 subunit of procaspase-8 consisting of three amino acid residues from L491 to F493 is crucial for the formation of procaspase-8 interdimer, and the aberration of this segment disrupts the dimerization and consequently precludes the activation of caspase-8 and downstream apoptotic signaling pathway. Therefore, the patients with AML who bear these types of P10 mutations were more likely to develop chemotherapy resistance due to impaired apoptotic signaling in cellular system, leading to significantly reduced overall survival (OS) as compared with patients carrying no such types of P10 mutations. Taken together, these newly identified P10 mutations in procaspase-8 could be used as novel biomarkers for predicting response and survival of chemotherapy-treated AML patients, as well as potential therapeutic targets for medical intervention in the future.

Chemotherapeutic Drug Based Metal-Organic Particles for Microvesicle-Mediated Deep Penetration and Programmable pH/NIR/Hypoxia Activated Cancer Photochemotherapy

A novel metal-organic particle (MOP) based nanodrug formed by mild self-assembly of chemotherapeutic drugs, including banoxantrone and doxorubicin, through Cu(II)-mediated coordination effects, is reported. In this nanodrug, Cu(II) acts as a bridge to join AQ4N and DOX, and then, self-assembly of [-AQ4N-Cu(II)-(DOX)2-Cu(II)-] n complexes forms nanosized MOPs (referred to as ADMOPs) through multiple interactions including host-metal-guest coordination, hydrophobic interactions, π-stacking, and van der Waals force. The ADMOPs reported here have several important features over conventional drugs, including tumor microenvironment pH-sensitive drug release that can be tracked by "turning on" the fluorescence of AQ4N or DOX through proton competition with Cu(II) to break the coordination bonds and much deeper penetration into solid tumors via microvesicle-mediated intercellular transfer. Most strikingly, the ADMOPs can serve as stimuli-responsive nanocarriers to efficiently load the photosensitizer phthalocyanine due to their inherent highly porous characteristics. Thus, the ADMOPs significantly enhance the chemotherapeutic efficacy by "on-demand" photodynamic therapy, which further induces a hypoxic environment that enhances the reduction of AQ4N to systematically increase the therapeutic efficiency. Taken together, the designed ADMOPs composed of chemotherapeutic drugs may serve as a potential programmable controlled synergistic agent for cancer therapy.

3D-cultured adipose tissue-derived stem cells inhibit liver cancer cell migration and invasion through suppressing epithelial-mesenchymal transition

Adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are considered promising candidates for stem cell therapy; however, the tumorigenicity of ADSCs remains controversial. The present study aimed to investigate the association between ADSCs and liver cancer cells, and to determine whether culture methods could influence the effects of ADSCs on liver cancer cell growth in vitro. Liver cancer cells were treated with ADSCs-conditioned medium (CM) that was collected using the two-dimensional (2D) culture method, sphere culture method, or three-dimensional (3D) culture method. After that, cell viability and apoptosis were measured using CCK-8 and Annexin V-FITC assay, respectively; the cell motility and adhesive capacity were analyzed by scratch wound healing and cell adhesion assay, respectively; the cell migration and invasion were examined by Transwell units; and the molecular mechanisms of ADSCs on effecting epithelial mesenchymal transition signaling pathway were further analyzed. The results demonstrated that ADSCs-CM was able to inhibit the growth of liver cancer cells by inhibiting cell proliferation and promoting cell apoptosis, as well as by suppressing cell motility, adhesive capacity, migration and invasion. In addition, ADSCs-CM was able to suppress cell growth via the downregulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition signaling. Notably, the enhanced inhibitory effects of ADSCs on liver cancer cell growth could be achieved after cultu ring using a 3D approach. These findings suggested that ADSCs may provide a novel promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of patients with liver cancer, and the 3D culture method may provide a novel approach to explore the association between ADSCs and cancer.

Adipose tissue-derived stem cells ameliorate hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and liver fibrosis in the type 2 diabetic rats

Background

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is closely associated with liver fibrosis, but no effective treatments are currently available. This study was designed to investigate the therapeutic effects of ADSCs on insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and liver fibrosis on T2D rats.

Methods

We first established a T2D rat model with liver fibrosis by using the combination of a high-fat diet (HFD), low-dose streptozotocin (STZ), and carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄). Subsequently, the model rats were administrated by tail vein injection of PBS or ADSCs, respectively. Thereafter, insulin resistance and liver function were assessed by biochemical analysis, ELISA, histopathological examination, and q-PCR assay, respectively. Moreover, the molecular mechanisms of ADSCs on the effect of the TGF-β1/SMAD3 signaling pathway were further analyzed.

Results

Our data showed that ADSC transplantation significantly alleviated insulin resistance and hyperglycemia in the liver-injured T2D rats. We also found that ADSC transplantation could attenuate liver injury by improving liver function and inhibiting pathological changes of liver fibrosis, as well as through downregulation of TGF-β1 and phosphorylated SMAD3 both in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusions

These findings suggested that ADSC transplantation can ameliorate insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and liver fibrosis via suppressing TGF-β1/SMAD3 signaling, which may provide a potential treatment strategy for liver fibrosis of T2D.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13287-017-0743-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A fluorescent turn on nanoprobe for simultaneous visualization of dual-targets involved in cell apoptosis and drug screening in living cells

Herein, a novel dual-responsive two-color fluorescent nanoprobe has been designed for the fluorescence activation imaging of cell apoptosis in living cells. The nanoprobe consists of a gold nanoparticle core functionalized with a dense layer of DNA aptamers and peptides, which shows high affinity and specific response to cytochrome c (Cyt c) and caspase-3, respectively. The formation of the aptamer-Cyt c complex and the cleavage of the specific peptide by caspase-3 can liberate the dye labelled aptamers and peptides from the surface of gold nanoparticles, and then recover their fluorescence. The turn-on and specific recognition properties of our nanoprobe allow for the sensitive and selective detection of Cyt c concentration and caspase-3 activity both in solutions and in living cells. The here proposed nanoprobe with the abilities of real-time monitoring the cell apoptosis and evaluating the apoptosis-related drug efficacy might serve as a potential interesting tool for studying the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis regulation or screening the apoptosis-based drugs.

Core-shell NaGdF4@CaCO3 nanoparticles for enhanced magnetic resonance/ultrasonic dual-modal imaging via tumor acidic micro-enviroment triggering

For cancer diagnosis, a paramount challenge still exists in the exploring of methods that can precisely discriminate tumor tissues from their surrounding healthy tissues with a high target-to-background signal ratio. Here, we report a NaGdF4@CaCO3-PEG core-shell nanoparticle which has the tumor acidic microenvironment enhanced imaging signals of ultrasound and magnetic resonance. Under the acidic conditions, the CaCO3 shell will gradually dissolve which then facilitate the interaction of NaGdF4 with the external aqueous environment to enhance water proton relaxation. Meanwhile, the CO2 bubbles generated by the CaCO3 dissolvement will generate strong elastic echo for US detection. The core-shell structure of NaGdF4@CaCO3-PEG can be observed by TEM, and its composition can be determined by STEM. The acid triggered generation of CO2 bubbles and the enhancement of MRI signal could be demonstrated in vitro, and the excellent dual-modal magnetic resonance/ultrasonic cancer imaging abilities of NaGdF4@CaCO3-PEG could be also proved at the tumor site in vivo. The here described proof-of-concept nanoparticles with pH triggered magnetic resonance/ultrasonic dual-modal imaging enhancement, may serve as a useful guide to develop various molecular imaging strategies for cancer diagnosis in the future.

Circulating tumor DNA profiling reveals clonal evolution and real-time disease progression in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) provides a potential non-invasive biomarker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, but whether it could reflect tumor heterogeneity and monitor therapeutic responses in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. Focusing on 574 cancer genes known to harbor actionable mutations, we identified the mutation repertoire of HCC tissues, and monitored the corresponding ctDNA features in blood samples to evaluate its clinical significance. Analysis of 3 HCC patients' mutation profiles revealed that ctDNA could overcome tumor heterogeneity and provide information of tumor burden and prognosis. Further analysis was conducted on the 4th HCC case with multiple lesion samples and sequential plasma samples. We identified 160 subclonal SNVs in tumor tissues as well as matched peritumor tissues with PBMC as control. 96.9% of this patient's tissue mutations could be also detected in plasma samples. These subclonal SNVs were grouped into 9 clusters according to their trends of cellular prevalence shift in tumor tissues. Two clusters constituted of tumor stem somatic mutations showed circulating levels relating with cancer progression. Analysis of tumor somatic mutations revealed that circulating level of such tumor stem somatic mutations could reflect tumor burden and even predict prognosis earlier than traditional strategies. Furthermore, HCK (p.V174M), identified as a recurrent/metastatic related mutation site, could promote migration and invasion of HCC cells. Taken together, study of mutation profiles in biopsy and plasma samples in HCC patients showed that ctDNA could overcome tumor heterogeneity and real-time track the therapeutic responses in the longitudinal monitoring.

Tumor Microenvironment Activable Self-Assembled DNA Hybrids for pH and Redox Dual-Responsive Chemotherapy/PDT Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Smart self-assembled "Turn-ON" DNA hybrids are employed, which could respond to tumor microenvironment stimuli for cancer cell specific real-time fluorescence imaging, tumor-specific synergistic photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The Coronin Family and Human Disease

The Coronin family is one of the WD-repeat domain containing families that are diverse in both of their structures and functions. The first coronin was identified in the cytoskeleton composition of Dictyostelium discoideum, which was discovered to regulate the actin functions. So far, 723 coronins have been identified throughout the eukaryotic kingdom by bioinformatics analysis in 358 species. In mammals, 7 coronins have been identified to date, which are named through Coronin 1 to Coronin 7; all of these isoforms contain two structurally conservational region: a 7-bladed β-propeller scaffold in N-terminal and a C-terminal variable coiled coil domain. Although some studies were showing that mammalian coronins have regulated the actin dynamics, recently many other functions such as calcium signaling regulation, cAMP signaling regulation, have been also reported beyond the actin modulation. Furthermore, many diseases have been found to be extensively associated with the abnormal expression of coronins, such as auto-immunity, bacterial and virus infection, neuronal behavior disorder and cancer. In this review, we would like to systematically discuss the recent progresses of mammalian coronins and associated diseases, as well as possible underlying molecular mechanisms.

A cancer cell specific targeting nanocomplex for combination of mRNA-responsive photodynamic and chemo-therapy

Herein, a cancer cell specific targeting nanocomplex which combines photodynamic therapy with chemotherapy through precisely responding to the intracellular tumor-related mRNA is presented.

Smart Cu(II)-aptamer complexes based gold nanoplatform for tumor micro-environment triggered programmable intracellular prodrug release, photodynamic treatment and aggregation induced photothermal therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

This study describes smart Cu(II)-aptamer complexes based gold nanoplatform for tumor micro-environment triggered programmable prodrug release, in demand photodynamic therapy and aggregation induced photothermal ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma. The nanoplatform is consist of monodispersed gold nanoparticle (GNP) that is binding to HCC cell specific targeting aptamers (TLS11a) through Au-S bond; the aptamer is labeled with Ce6 at the 5'end and coordinated with Cu(II) through (GA)₁₀ repeating bases to load AQ4N at the 3' end. In normal physiological conditions, the fluorescence and ROS generation ability of Ce6 are quenched by GNPs via RET; but in cancerous cells, the fluorescence and the ROS generation of Ce6 could be recovered by cleavage of Au-S bond through high level of intracellular GSH for real-time imaging and in demand PDT. Meanwhile, the prodrug AQ4N release could be triggered by acid-cleavage of coordination bonds, then accompanied by a release of Cu(II) that would induce the electrostatic aggregation of GNPs for photo-thermal ablation; furthermore, the significantly enhanced chemotherapy efficiency could be achieved by PDT produced hypoxia to convert AQ4N into AQ4. In summary, here described nanoplatform with tumor cell specific responsive properties and programmable PDT/PTT/chemotherapy functions, might be an interesting synergistic strategy for HCC treatment.

Reveal the molecular signatures of hepatocellular carcinoma with different sizes by iTRAQ based quantitative proteomics

Tumor size of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a key parameter for predicting prognosis of HCC patients. The biological behaviors of HCC, such as tumor growth, recurrence and metastasis are significantly associated with tumor size. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we applied iTRAQ-based proteomic strategy to analyze the proteome differences among small, media, large and huge primary HCC tissues. In brief,88 proteins in small HCC, 69 proteins in media HCC, 118 proteins in large HCC and 215 proteins in huge HCC, were identified by comparing the proteome of cancerous tissues with its corresponding non-cancerous tissues. Further analysis of dysregulated proteins involved in signaling revealed that alteration of ERK1/2 and AKT signaling played important roles in the tumorigenesis or tumor growth in all subtypes. Interestingly, alteration of specific signaling was discovered in small and huge HCC, which might reflect specific molecular mechanisms of tumor growth. Furthermore, the dysregulation degree of a group of proteins has been confirmed to be significantly correlated with the tumor size; these proteins might be potential targets for studying tumor growth of HCC. Overall, we have revealed the molecular signatures of HCC with different tumor sizes, and provided fundamental information for further in-depth study.

BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

In this study, we compared the protein expression profiles among different HCC subtypes, including small HCC, media HCC, large HCC and huge HCC for the first time. The results clearly proved that different molecular alterations and specific signaling pathways were indeed involved in different HCC subtypes, which might explain the different malignancy biological behaviors. In addition, the dysregulation degree of a group of proteins has been confirmed to be significantly correlated with the tumor size. We believe that these findings would help us better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of the tumorigenesis and development of HCC.

Overexpression of annexin A4 indicates poor prognosis and promotes tumor metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma

The prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after surgical resection remains unsatisfactory for the majority of HCC patients who developed early recurrence or metastasis. There is still a lack of reliable biomarkers that can be used to predict the possibility of recurrence/metastasis in HCC patients after operation. In the current study, annexin A4, a calcium-dependent phospholipid-binding protein, has been found to be significantly elevated in HCC patients with early recurrence/metastasis, and had a strong correlation with portal vein tumor thrombosis (p = 0.03) and advanced BCLC stage (p = 0.002). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that annexin A4 was an independent prognostic predictor for both early recurrence/metastasis (HR = 1.519, p = 0.032) and overall survival (HR = 1.827, p = 0.009) after surgical resection. Meanwhile, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that Patients with high-expression levels of annexin A4 had higher recurrence rate and shorter overall survival than those with low expression (log-rank test, p < 0.001). Furthermore, in vitro studies have demonstrated that overexpression of annexin A4 facilitated HCC cell migration and invasion via regulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In conclusion, annexin A4 has played important roles in the progression of HCC, and might act as a potential prognostic biomarker for HCC.

Poly (dopamine) coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocluster for noninvasive labeling, tracking, and targeted delivery of adipose tissue-derived stem cells

Tracking and monitoring of cells in vivo after transplantation can provide crucial information for stem cell therapy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with contrast agents is believed to be an effective and non-invasive technique for cell tracking in living bodies. However, commercial superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) applied to label cells suffer from shortages such as potential toxicity, low labeling efficiency, and low contrast enhancing. Herein, the adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) were efficiently labeled with SPIONs coated with poly (dopamine) (SPIONs cluster@PDA), without affecting their viability, proliferation, apoptosis, surface marker expression, as well as their self-renew ability and multi-differentiation potential. The labeled cells transplanted into the mice through tail intravenous injection exhibited a negative enhancement of the MRI signal in the damaged liver-induced by carbon tetrachloride, and subsequently these homed ADSCs with SPIONs cluster@PDA labeling exhibited excellent repair effects to the damaged liver. Moreover, the enhanced target-homing to tissue of interest and repair effects of SPIONs cluster@PDA-labeled ADSCs could be achieved by use of external magnetic field in the excisional skin wound mice model. Therefore, we provide a facile, safe, noninvasive and sensitive method for external magnetic field targeted delivery and MRI based tracking of transplanted cells in vivo.

Toxicological evaluation of Prussian blue nanoparticles after short exposure of mice

Prussian blue nanoparticle (PBNP), a new type of theranostic nanomaterial, had been used for cancer magnetic resonance imaging and photothermal therapy. However, their long-term toxicity after short exposure in vivo was still unclear. In this study, we investigated the dynamic changes of the biochemical and immunity indicators of mice after PBNPs injection through tail vein. Histological results showed that the PBNPs were mainly accumulated in liver and spleen. In the spleen, we found the frequency of T cells was starting to decrease after 1 day of PBNPs injection, but then slowly recovered to normal level after 60 days of injection. Meanwhile, the frequency of T cells in the blood was firstly decreased after the PBNPs injection, and then the T cell frequency kept increasing and recovered back to normal levels after 7 days of injection. The serum indexes of liver functions (alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, total bilirubin, and alkaline phosphatase) increased rapidly to a relatively high level only after 1 h of injection, which meant certain acute liver damage, but these indexes were gradually decreased to normal levels after 60 days of injection. These results indicate that PBNPs have acute toxicity in vivo, however, their long-term toxicity after short-time exposure is low, which might provide guidance for further applications of PBNPs in future.

Dataset for the quantitative proteomics analysis of the primary hepatocellular carcinoma with single and multiple lesions

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumor, which is causing the second leading cancer-related death worldwide. The tumor tissues and the adjacent noncancerous tissues obtained from HCC patients with single and multiple lesions were quantified using iTRAQ. A total of 5513 proteins (FDR of 1%) were identified which correspond to roughly 27% of the total liver proteome. And 107 and 330 proteins were dysregulated in HCC tissue with multiple lesions (MC group) and HCC tissue with a single lesion (SC group), compared with their noncancerous tissue (MN and SN group) respectively. Bioinformatics analysis (GO, KEGG and IPA) allowed these data to be organized into distinct categories. The data accompanying the manuscript on this approach (Xing et al., J. Proteomics (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jprot.2015.08.007[1]) have been deposited to the iProX with identifier IPX00037601.

Effects of the Treg/Th17 cell balance and their associated cytokines in patients with hepatitis B infection

The extent to which T-cell-mediated immunity is impaired in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains controversial. In addition, the role of T regulatory (Treg) and T helper 17 (Th17) cells and their associated cytokines in immunity is not clear. In the present study, peripheral blood samples were collected from 44 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus, 14 asymptomatic hepatitis B carriers, 19 patients with liver cirrhosis and 20 healthy individuals. Flow cytometry was used to detect the percentages of T cell subsets in the samples, including CD3⁺, CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells, Treg cells and Th17 cells. A cytometric bead array was conducted to detect the levels of interleukin (IL)-17, -6, -10 and -21, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β. The data revealed that Treg cell levels decreased, while Th17 cell levels increased in the peripheral blood of HBV patients. As the extent of inflammation and fibrosis in the hepatic tissue increased, the frequency of Treg and Th17 cells in the peripheral blood did not significantly differ. In addition, the levels of Th17 cells were found to positively correlate with TGF-β and IL-21 levels. Therefore, analyzing the balance between Treg/Th17 cells and their associated cytokines may be a useful indicator in the diagnosis of HBV.

Galectin-4 serves as a prognostic biomarker for the early recurrence / metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Galectin-4 is a multifunctional lectin found at both intracellular and extracellular sites. It could serve as a tumor suppressor intracellularly and promote tumor metastases extracellularly during colorectal cancer development. However, galectin-4 expression and its prognostic value for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been well investigated. Here we report that galectin-4 was significantly downregulated in early recurrent/metastatic HCC patients, when compared to non-recurrent/metastatic HCC patients. Low expression of gelectin-4 was well associated with larger tumor size, microvascular invasion, malignant differentiation, more advanced TNM stage, and poor prognosis. Cancer cell migration and invasion could be significantly reduced through overexpression of galectin-4, but upregulated by knocking down of galectin-4 in vitro. Moreover, the serum galectin-4 level could be significantly elevated solely by hepatitis B virus infection. Combined with clinicopathological features, the higher serologic level of galectin-4 was well associated with more aggressive characteristics of HCC. Taken together, galectin-4 expression closely associates with HCC progression and might have potential use as a prognostic biomarker for HCC patients.

α-Methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) serves as a prognostic biomarker for the early recurrence/metastasis of HCC

AIMS

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and it is still lacking effective prognostic biomarkers so far. Previous results of the iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics study (iTRAQ-2DLC-MS/MS) have shown that α-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) might be a promising prognostic biomarker for the early recurrence/metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here a large-scale cohort clinical study was performed to evaluate its prognostic potential.

METHODS

HCC samples from patients (n=158) were used for the construction of tissue microarray. The expression level of AMACR was determined by immunohistochemical staining. A large-scale cohort clinical study between the expression of AMACR and some major clinical parameter has been performed to assess the prognostic potential of AMACR for the early recurrence/metastasis of HCC.

RESULTS

Some important clinical parameters such as α-fetoprotein, tumour numbers, dissemination to regional lymph nodes, tumour capsule and portal vein tumour thrombosis are significantly associated with the low expression of AMACR. The expression of AMACR was an independent factor for the survival of patients with HCC. The median survival time was 17 months in the low-expression group compared with 45 months in the high-expression group.

CONCLUSIONS

This study reveals that the AMACR might be a potential prognostic marker for predicting early recurrence/metastasis of HCC after hepatectomy.

Quantitative proteomics analysis of early recurrence/metastasis of huge hepatocellular carcinoma following radical resection

BACKGROUND

Hepatic resection is the preferred treatment for huge hepatocellular carcinoma (>10 cm in diameter; H-HCC). However, the patients with H-HCC suffer from poor prognosis due to the early recurrence/metastasis. The underlying mechanism of H-HCC's early recurrence/metastasis is currently not well understood.

RESULTS

Here, we describe an Isobaric Tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ)-based quantitative proteomics approach to analyze the early recurrence/metastasis related proteins of H-HCC after radical resection through multidimensional chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (2DLC-MS/MS). The different protein expression profiles between the early recurrence/metastasis within 6 months(R/M≤6months) and late recurrence/metastasis within 6-12 months after surgery (R/M6-12months) were confirmed and might reveal different underlying molecular mechanisms. We identified 44 and 49 significantly differentially expressed proteins in the R/M≤6months group and the R/M6-12months group compared to the group who had no recurrence within 2 years post surgery (the NR/M group), respectively. Moreover, among those proteins, S100A12 and AMACR were down regulated in the R/M≤6months group but up-regulated in the R/M6-12months group; and this regulation was further confirmed in mRNA and protein level by Q-PCR, Western-Blot and Immunohistochemistry (IHC).

CONCLUSIONS

This current study presents the first proteomic profile of the early recurrence/metastasis of H-HCC. The results suggest that S100A12 and AMACR might be potential prognostic markers for predicting the early recurrence/metastasis of H-HCC after hepatectomy.