Study on the expression of Osteopontin and Syndecan-1 and their correlations with the clinical pathological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma by tissue microarray technique

AIM: To explore the expression of osteopontin (OPN) and syndecan-1 as well as their correlations with the clinical pathological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by tissue microarray (TMA) technique, and analyze the potential mechanisms during the development and progression of HCC.

METHODS: The expression patterns of OPN and syndecan-1 proteins in HCC, liver cirrhosis (LC) and normal liver tissue (NLT) were investigated using high throughput TMA specified to HCC (478 spots, product batch No: OD-CT-DgLiv01-001) by SP method.

RESULTS: The positive rate of OPN in HCC was significantly higher than that in LC or NLT (73.3% vs 47.4%, 22.2%, both P < 0.05). Correspondingly, the positive rate of Syndecan-1 expression was significantly lower than that in LC or NLT (19.6% vs 35.0%, 90.0%, P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The results of single-factor analysis showed that OPN expression was correlated with the integrality of tumor membrane (χ² = 4.52, P < 0.05), the formation of embolus in portal vein (χ² = 4.28, P < 0.05) and metastases (χ² = 7.21, P < 0.05). Syndecan-1 expression was correlated with the integrality of tumor membrane (χ² = 5.58, P < 0.01), metastases (χ² = 3.37, P < 0.05) and pathological grades (χ² = 4.35, P < 0.01). Moreover, OPN was negatively correlated with syndecan-1 (r = -0.439, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: TMA is a high-throughput platform by which molecular pathology of cancer can be studied effectively. Over-expression of OPN and down-regulation of syndecan-1 may be involved in the development and progression of HCC, suggesting that OPN may decrease the adhesiveness of tumor cells and promote the metastasis by down-regulating the expression of syndecan-1.