Identification of the Gene Associated with Hepatocellular Carcinoma using Differential Gene Expression

Song, Jeong Yeob; Choi, Jeong Hee; Lee, Kwang Jae; Yoo, Byung Moo; Hahm, Ki Baik; Kim, Jin Hong; Cho, Sung Won

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: It has been acknowleged that diverse factors such as Hepatitis B or C virus, alcohol, food carcinogens, and environmental or genetic factors are involved in hepatocellular carcinogenesis. In the molecular biologic aspect, suppression of tumor suppressor gene or amplification of oncogene, abnormal regulation of cell cycle-related proteins, abnormal apoptosis mechanism, and diverse growth factors are reported to be factors that contribute to hepatocellular carcinogenesis. In this study, the genetic difference between hepatocellular carcinoma tissue and surrounding non-hepatocellular carcinoma tissue has been investigated to identify genes that are deleted, diminished, amplified, or newly developed in hepatocellular carcinoma using differential gene expression. METHOD: We studied each of 12 biopsy samples of hepatocellular carcinoma and surrounding non-hepatocellular carcinoma tissues obtained during surgical resections. Random arbitrarily primed-polymerase chain reaction (RAP-PCR) was applied for differential gene expression. The genes that are deleted, diminished, or amplified, newly developed in hepatocellular carcinoma are cloned, sequenced, and then identified by BLAST search, some genes are characterized by eletrophoresis motility shift assay (EMSA) and in situ hybridization.
RESULTS
We identified the various, diverse genes classified as tumor suppressor genes, oncogenes, growth factor genes, and some kinds of transcription factors. Some of these genes were identified to be repressed, deleted or diminished, others were amplified, or newly developed in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues.
CONCLUSIONS
RAP-PCR is a good method in the identification of the gene associated with hepatocellular carcinoma. The result in this study shows that so many genes are different between hepatocellular carcinoma and surrounding non- hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, and that the genes related with hepatocellular carcinogenesis may be predicted. Further studies are necessary for analyzing the relationship bet