Expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator, urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 and-2 in hepatocellular carcinoma

It has become more and more clear in recent decades that the plasminogen ac tivation system, which includes urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), plasminogen activato r inhibitor (PAI)-1 and PAI-2, plays a very important role in the aggressiv eness of cancer. Using immunohistochemistry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the expression of these four components of the uPA system w as analyzed in 19 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 18 cases of t he adjacent non-cancer tissues which all had chronic active hepatitis with liver fibrosis or liver cirrhosis. Four cases of normal liver tissues, as c ontrols for immunohistochemical stains, were obtained from the hepatectomiz ed liver of patients with metastatic cancer in the liver. The positive rate s of uPA, uPAR, PAI-1 and PAI-2 for immunohistochemical stains in cancer ti ssues were 78.9, 68.4, 57.9 and 31.6%, respectively. Positive signals were mainly distributed in the cytoplasm of the cancer and in stromal cells. Mor eover, the strong stains were chiefly located in the invasive front of the cancer cells. No specific stain was detected in four cases of normal liver tissues. In ELISA, there were significant differences between cancer and no n-cancer tissues in concentration of uPA, uPAR and PAI-1 (P < 0.0003, 0.002 4 and 0.01, respectively), but there was no significant difference in that of PAI-2 (P = 0.37). These results suggest that uPA, uPAR and PAI-1 are rel ated to invasion of HCC.