Hepatocyte growth factor production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells of recurrent cancer patients

The elevation of circulating hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) concentrations is associated with tumor progression and prognosis in cancer patients. We a imed to clarify whether peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of cancer patients can produce circulating HGF. In sera and PBMC supematants of 39 c ancer patients and 55 control subjects, we measured HGF concentrations by e nzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and analyzed HGF expression in PBMC by rev erse transetiptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. Compared with primary cancer patients and control subjects, recurrent cancer patien ts showed higher serum HGF concentrations (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 respectively) , higher HGF concentrations in PBMC supernatants (p < 0.01 for both) and mo re frequent HGF mRNA expression in PBMC. Additionally, HGF mRNA was induced in PBMC of a control subject cultured with the sera of recurrent cancer pa tients. These results indicate that PBMC of recurrent cancer patients can p roduce HGF and that their sera may contain substances that induce HGF mRNA expression.