Expression of autotaxin mRNA in human hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of autotaxin (ATX) mRNA existed in the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and whether there is relation bet ween the level of ATX expression clinicopathological features of HCC. Methods Five normal liver tissues and 32 histologically verified HCC specim ens were obtained. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect mRNA expression of ATX. Results ATX was expressed in all 32 HCC and 5 normal liver tissues. The mea n expression level of ATX gene in HCC samples was higher than that in norma l liver tissues (68.23% +/- 15.31% vs. 31.97% +/- 8.05%, P < 0.001). Patien ts were divided into two groups: low ATX HCC (15 cases) and high ATX HCC (1 7 cases) by the cutoff point of median value. Intrahepatic metastasis, vasc ular invasion and poor differentiation were more frequently noted in HCC pa tients with high ATX expression than in patients with low ATX expression. Conclusion ATX gene was found to be overexpressed in some HCC and correlate d with HCC development and metastases.