Association of SOCS1 mRNA expression with hepatitis B virus infection-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the predominant form of liver cancer worldwide, can be triggered by a variety of causes such as chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The immune response to HBV activates the janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK/STAT) signaling pathway. Suppressor of cytokine singnaling 1 (SOCS1) is a negative feedback regulator of JAK/STAT pathway. Our study was carried out to evaluate SOCS1 mRNA expression and its correlation with paraclinical characteristics in patients with HBV-related HCC. The SOCS1 mRNA expression level in adjacent non-tumour tissues and tumour liver tissues were determined in 44 patients with HBV infection-associated HCC by real-time RT-PCR. Our results showed that SOCS1 mRNA expression level in adjacent non-tumour tissues were significantly higher than in HCC tissues (p=0.003). High expression of SOCS1 in adjacent non-tumour tissue was observed in patients with single tumour (p=0.024), tumour size ≤5 cm (p=0.011), vascular invasion (p=0.047), and no vascular invasion (p=0.007). Red blood cell counts were positively correlated with SOCS1 gene expression (Spearman's rho=0.359, p=0.018). Our results suggested that SOCS1 expression may be considered as a potential factor involved in the pathogenesis of HCC.