Serum immunoreactivity of SMP30 and its tissues expression in hepatocellular carcinoma

Objectives To detect serum antibody against SMP30 in HCC patients and to evaluate its potential associations with HCC patient's clinical parameter and expression levels in HCC tissues. Design and Methods Serum antibody to SMP30 was tested by ELISA method; SMP30 mRNA and protein expression in HCC patients were analyzed using the methods of in situ nucleic acid hybridization and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Results The highest relevance of SMP30 antibody was associated with HCC (32.4%). The positive rate of SMP30 antibody was not related to the age of patients, tumor size, metastasis and infections of HBV, but the positive rate for SMP30 antibody in the HCC sera with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) negative was higher (43.6%) compared with that AFP positive (26.2%). Both SMP30 mRNA and protein expression levels were downregulated in HCC and upregulated in adjacent tissues. Conclusions SMP30 may be useful for HCC serologic screening, especially for the patients with AFP negative.