1. The mitochondrial hinge protein, UQCRH, is a novel prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma
- Author
-
Sun Hoo Park, Jee San Lee, Sang Bum Kim, Dong Wook Choi, Kee Ho Lee, Yang Hyun Kim, Ja June Jang, Chul Han, Dong Hyoung Lee, Young Nyun Park, Kyung-Suk Suh, Eun Ran Park, Jae Won Lee, Eung Ho Cho, Bu Yeo Kim, Young Do Yoo, and Ami Yu
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Adult ,Male ,Cancer Research ,Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ,AFP ,Mitochondrion ,Reductase ,03 medical and health sciences ,Electron Transport Complex III ,0302 clinical medicine ,Respiration ,medicine ,Humans ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,UQCRH overexpression ,Original Research ,Aged ,Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ,business.industry ,Liver Neoplasms ,Cancer ,hepatocellular carcinoma ,Mitochondria ,Prognosis ,UQCRHoverexpression ,Clinical Cancer Research ,HCCS ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Hepatitis B ,Reverse transcriptase ,digestive system diseases ,Tumor Burden ,Up-Regulation ,Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ,030104 developmental biology ,Oncology ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Hepatocellular carcinoma ,Coenzyme Q – cytochrome c reductase ,Cancer research ,Female ,business - Abstract
Alterations in mitochondrial respiration contribute to the development and progression of cancer via abnormal biogenesis, including generation of reactive oxygen species. Ubiquinol–cytochrome c reductase hinge protein (UQCRH) consists of the cytochrome bc1 complex serving respiration in mitochondria. In the present study, we analyzed UQCRH abnormalities in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its association with clinical outcomes of patients. UQCRH expression in HCC was determined via semiquantitative and quantitative real‐time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction of 96 surgically resected HCC tissues positive for hepatitis B virus surface antigen. UQCRH was frequently overexpressed in HCC tissues (46.8%, based on 2.1‐fold cutoff). UQCRH overexpression was observed in HCCs with larger tumor size, poorer differentiation, or vascular invasion. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed significantly shorter overall (P = 0.005) and recurrence‐free survival (P = 0.027) in patients with tumors overexpressing UQCRH. The prognostic impact of UQCRH was significant in subgroups of patients divided according to the α‐fetoprotein (AFP) level. The patient subgroup with higher AFP levels (≥20 ng/mL) exhibited significant differences in 5‐year overall (18.5% vs. 67.9%) and recurrence‐free survival rates (11.1% vs. 46.4%) between groups with and without UQCRH overexpression. In contrast, no marked survival differences were observed between subgroups with lower AFP levels (
- Published
- 2017