Increased extrinsic apoptotic pathway activity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma following transarterial embolization

Abstract

AIM: To determine the apoptosis pathway in residual viable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues following transarterial embolization (TAE). METHODS: Ten patients with HCC who received surgical resection after TAE were enrolled in the study group, and 24patientswithHCCwhoreceivedsurgi-patients with HCC who received surgical resection only servedasthecontrolgroup.Intheserved as the control group.nthe. IIn the study group, we measured the changes in tumor size and α fetoprotein (AFPP) levels after TAE. All tissue samples were taken from the residual tumors. The expression of various apoptotic proteins was evaluated via immunoblotting procedures. The results were analyzed using a Student's t test. RESULTS: Tumor size and the AFPP level decreased by46.22% and 55.3% after TAE, respectively. There was no significant difference detected for the Bcl-2/Bax ratio or the cleaved caspase-9 expression levels in either group. However, extrinsic apoptopic pathway-related expression of Fas and cleaved caspase-8 expression were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group (PP < 0.05). IIn addition, cleaved caspase-3 expression in the study group was higher (1.622-fold) than in control group (< 0.05). CONCLUSION: TAE is an effective palliative therapy that decreases tumor size and AFPP levels via an increase in extrinsic apoptosis pathway in patients with unresectable HCC. © 2011 Baishideng. All rights reserved.