Combined measurement of serum tumor markers in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Normal and modified urinary nucleosides represent novel biomarkers for colorectal cancer diagnosis and surgery monitoring

BACKGROUND

Up to now, there is still no ideal tumor marker in early diagnosis and effective monitoring, especially for surgical resection of colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the application of urinary normal and modified nucleosides in diagnosis and surgery monitoring of CRC.

METHODS

Between October 2002 and July 2003, 52 consecutive patients with pathological confirmed CRC were enrolled. Spontaneous urine samples were collected 1 day before surgery and on day 8 postoperatively, and 14 urinary nucleosides were determined by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Another 62 healthy people were also studied as control. The clinical routine tumor markers, serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA)199, CA125, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) of CRC patients, were correspondingly evaluated by electrochemiluminescent immunoassay.

RESULTS

The levels of 11 out of 14 of the determined urinary nucleosides in the CRC group were much higher than those of normal controls. Through the principal component analysis of these 14 nucleosides, 76.9% of CRC patients were correctly classified. The sensitivity of this analysis was much higher than that of CEA (38.5%), CA199 (40.4%), CA125 (15.4%), and AFP (17.3%; P < 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of 1-methylguanosine (m1G) and pseudouridine (Pseu) showed good sensitivity-specificity profiles of the diagnosis of CRC. The elevated levels of the nine nucleosides significantly decreased after curative resection of 40 CRC cases. The data also showed that the preoperative levels of some nucleosides were positively related with tumor size and Dukes staging of CRC.

CONCLUSION

The evaluation of normal and modified urinary nucleosides might become novel tumor markers, which will be facilitated in the clinical setting and helpful in the diagnosis, management and follow up of CRC. Pseu and m1G may be more promising for clinical use and be worthy of further studies in the near future.

Anti-hepatoma activity of resveratrol in vitro

AIM: To study the anti-tumor effect of resveratrol alone and the synergistic effects of resveratrol with 5-FU on the growth of H22 cells line in vitro

METHODS: The number of cells was measured by MTT method,the morphological changes of H₂₂ cells were investigated under microscopy and electron microscopyq.

RESULTS: Resveratrol inhibited the growth of hepatoma cells line H₂₂ in a dose- and time-dependent manner. IC₅₀ of the resveratrol on H₂₂ cells was 6.57 mg·L^-1. The synergistic anti-tumor effects of resveratrol with 5-FU increased to a greater extent than for H22 cells treated with 5-FU alone (70.2% vs 28.4%)(P < 0.05). Under microscope and electron microscope, characteristics of apoptosis such as typical apoptotic bodies were commonly found in tumor cells in the drug-treated groups.

CONCLUSION: Resveratrol can suppresses the growth of H₂₂ cells in vitro, its anti-tumor activity may occur through the induction of apoptosis.

Alterations in metastatic properties of hepatocellular carcinoma cell following H-ras oncogene transfection

AIM: To demonstrate the relationship between H-ras oncogene and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis.

METHODS: Activated H-ras oncogene was transfected into SMMC 7721, a cell line derived from human HCC, by calcium phosphate transfection method. Some metastasis-related parameters were detected in vitro, including adhesion assay, migration assay, expression of collagenase IV (cIVase) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

RESULTS: The abilities of H-ras-transfected cell clones in adhesion to laminin (LN) or fibronectin (FN), migration, cIVase secretion increased markedly, and the expression of EGFR elevated moderately. More importantly, these alterations were consistent positively with the expression of p21, the protein product of H-ras oncogene.

CONCLUSION: H-ras oncogene could induce the metastatic phenotype of HCC cell in vitro to raise its metastatic potential.