Lewis Antigens,α1,3
Fucosyltransferses and the Metastatic Potential of Human Primary Liver Cancer
LIU Fei, CHEN Ji-Hua, ZHAO Jia-Hong, FAN Jia1,
CHEN Hui-Li
( Key Laboratory of Glycoconjugate Research, Ministry of Health, Department
of Biochemistry, Shanghai Medical University； 1Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan
Hospital, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200032, China )
Abstract In order to
study the expression of Lewis antigens and the subtypes of α1,3
fucosyltransferase(α1,3FucT) in human primary liver cancer, and their relations
with the cancer cell embolus formation, as well as the expression of nm23-H1,
a metastatic suppressor gene, Lewis antigens were detected with
immunohistochemical method, and the mRNA of α1,3 FucTs and nm23-H1
were determined with Northern blot. Results showed that the positive rates of
the expression of four Lewis antigens, sialyl Lewis X(SLex), Lewis
X(Lex), sialyl dimeric Lewis X(SDLex) and sialyl Lewis
A(SLea), in human primary liver cancer were about 80%. The
expression of SLex was rather higher, Lex and SLea
were lower, but the expression of SDLex was only in trace amount.
The four Lewis antigens were not expressed in the liver regions adjacent to the
cancer tissues. The transcriptional level of α1,3 FucT-III/VI mRNA in cancer
tissues was higher than that in the adjacent regions, especially in the cancer
tissues of patients with portal vein cancer cell embolus(CCE). However, the
expression of α1,3 FucT-III/VI mRNA was not different in the adjacent regions
in spite of the presence or absence of CCE in the patients. In contrast, the
expression of α1,3 FucT-VII was rather lower and identical to each other both
in cancer tissues and adjacent regions. In addition, it was found that the
expression of nm23-H1, a metastasis suppressor gene, was markedly
lower in the cancer tissues of patients with CCE than that in the non-CCE
patients and the adjacent regions. Furthermore, the expression of nm23-H1
was negatively related to the expression of α1,3 FucT-III/VI. These results
indicated that the expression of α1,3 FucT-III/VI and its product SLex
were correlated with CCE (metastatic potential), and the down-regulation of
α1,3 FucT-III/VI and SLex may be one of the mechanisms of nm23-H1 to
inhibit liver cancer metastasis.
Key words human
primary liver cancer； Lewis antigen； α1,3 fucosyltransferase； metastasis of liver cancer； nm23-H1
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