肝細胞癌におけるstem/progenitor cell markerの免疫組織化学的検討

Abstract

Introduction : Recently, stem/progenitor cell marker positive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), such as intermediate cell type HCC, CK19 positive HCC and cholangiolocellular carcinoma, has been identified, and stem/progenitor cell origin of liver cancer may have been suggested. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of stem/progenitor cell marker in case of hepatocellular carcinoma in relation to clinicopathological and morphological features. Materials and methods : Tissue specimens from 65 HCC patients who underwent primary curative hepatectomy between 2007 and 2010 were collected and immunohistochemically analyzed for the expression of CK19, CDC56, c-kit, CD44, and CD133. The correlation between each expression and clinicopathological and morphological factors of HCC patients were evaluated. Results : CK19-positive HCC were observed in 4 (6%) cases. Female gender, metastasis and necrosis of tumor cells were significantly more frequent observed in cases showing positive expression of CK19, and poorly differentiated HCC more frequently expressed CK19 than well/moderately differentiated HCC. Oncocyte-like cells were more frequently observed in CD56-positive HCC (4 cases ; 6%). However, c-kit, CD44, CD133-positive HCC was not found to be associated with any clinicopathological and morphological factors of HCC. Conclusion : Our study suggested that the expression of CK19 in HCC would correlate with female gender, tumor necrosis and metastasis and poor cell differentiation, and CD56 would be associated with oncocyte features of HCC.