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High Expression of Neuropilin-1 Associates with Unfavorable Clinicopathological Features in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

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Pathology & Oncology Research

Abstract

As a co-receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) plays an important role in angiogenesis and malignant progression of many human cancers. However, the role of NRP-1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not well understood. The study aimed to detected the expression of Neuropilin-1 in HCC and investigate the association between its expression and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of HCC. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), Western blot, Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analyses were performed to characterize the expression of NRP-1 in HCC cell lines and tissues. The association of NRP-1 expression with the clinicopathological characteristics and the prognosis was subsequently assessed. qRT-PCR and Western blot assays revealed that the expression of NRP-1 in HCC was significantly increased relative to that of normal live cells and tissues (P < 0.05,and <0.001, respectively). In addition, high expression of NRP-1 was significantly associated with intrahepatic metastasis (P = 0.036), Edmondson grade (P = 0.007), TNM classification (P = 0.0031), and portal vein invasion (P = 0.004). Furthermore, the HCC patients with high NRP-1 expression had shorter overall survival (OS), and recurrence-free survival (RFS), whereas, patients with low NRP-1 expression had better OS and RFS (P = 0.0035, and 0.0048, respectively). These data indicate that NRP-1 expression may play an important role in the progression of HCC, and that high NRP-1 expression suggests unfavorable clinicopathological characteristics and survival in HCC patients.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. X. Su was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (81071182) and the Program for Training Young Talents of Fujian Health (2014-ZQN-ZD-35). Dr. J. Yan was supported by grants from NSFC (81172970) and Natural Science Foundation of Fujian (2013 J01384,2013Y0080).

Authors’ Contributions

YZ, XS and JY conceived and designed experiments and interpreted data. YZ and XD performed experiments. YZ, PL, YJ, CM, QF, WW, FS, and HT completed patient follow-ups and data collection. YZ and XS wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital Xiamen University, No.201 Hubin South Road, Xiamen, 361004, China

    Yafei Zhang, Peng Liu, Yizhen Jiang, Chao Ma, Qun Fan, Weixing Wang, Fu Su, Hui Tang & Xinhui Su

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No.88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou, 310009, China

    Xiaofeng Dou

  3. Cancer Research Center of Medical School, Xiamen University, Xiangan South Road, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Jianghua Yan

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  1. Yafei Zhang
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  2. Peng Liu
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  9. Fu Su
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  11. Xinhui Su
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Correspondence to Xinhui Su.

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Zhang, Y., Liu, P., Jiang, Y. et al. High Expression of Neuropilin-1 Associates with Unfavorable Clinicopathological Features in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Pathol. Oncol. Res. 22, 367–375 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12253-015-0003-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12253-015-0003-z

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