Abstract
AIM: To investigate the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 2 and 6 (BMP-2, 6) mRNA in human liver cancer, and to explore its relationship with biologic action in liver cancer.
METHODS: The expressions of BMP-2 and BMP-6 in 30 carcinoma liver tissue samples and 30 normal liver tissue samples were detected and analyzed by reverse transcriptase PCR and Western blot.
RESULTS: The relative level of BMP-2 and BMP-6 mRNA was significantly lower in the normal liver tissue samples than in the liver carcinoma tissue samples (0.3245 ± 0.1127 vs 0.8298 ± 0.1187, 0.2947 ± 0.1853 vs 0.7145 ± 0.1373, both P < 0.05). The relative level of BMP-2 and BMP-6 mRNA in III, IV stages of liver cancer was significantly higher than that in I, II stages (0.92431 ± 0.1234 vs 0.69355 ± 0.1925, 0.8354 ± 0.1423 vs 0.6043 ± 0.1234, both P < 0.05). The expression level of BMP-2 and BMP-6 protein were significantly higher in the metastatic liver cancer compared with that without metastasis (0.9854 ± 0.2888 vs 0.6244 ± 0.3087, 0.9076 ± 0.1276 vs 0.5678 ± 0.2493, both P < 0.01).
CONCLUSION: Up-regulated expressions of BMP-2 and BMP-6 play an important role in liver cancer. It may have the active role in invasion and metastasis of liver cancer.
Collapse