Int J Med Sci 2017; 14(2):136-142. doi:10.7150/ijms.17754 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Surgery, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
2. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
3. School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
4. Department of Ophthalmology, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
5. Department of Optometry, Yuan Pei University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
6. Department of Emergency Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
7. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
8. Department of Medical Research, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
9. Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine Sciences and Technology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
10. Division of Allergy, Department of Pediatrics, Chung-Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
# These authors contributed equally to the work.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. Multiple risk factors, such as chronic hepatitis B or C virus infection, carcinogen exposure, cirrhosis, and various single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are considered to contribute to hepatocarcinogenesis. Chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1), a biomarker implicated in inflammation and tissue remodeling, plays a promoting role in angiogenesis, antiapoptosis, and cell proliferation. This study investigated the role of CHI3L1 SNPs in HCC susceptibility and clinicopathology. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze four SNPs of CHI3L1 in 343 patients with HCC and 686 cancer-free controls. We found associations with HCC susceptibility in CHI3L1 rs880633 polymorphism carriers with genotypes (TC+CC). We observed that HCC patients had lower frequencies of CHI3L1 rs6691378 polymorphisms with the variant genotype GA+AA than the wild-type carriers with distant metastasis and positive HBsAg did. In 200 HBsAg negative HCC patients, we observed that the CHI3L1 rs4950928 polymorphisms carriers with the variant genotype CG+GG had higher frequencies of vascular invasion. Finally, carriers of CHI3L1 rs6691378 and 10399805 polymorphisms with the variant genotypes GA+AA showed lower levels of alpha-fetoprotein in HCC laboratory status. In conclusion, our results indicate that patients with CHI3L1 rs880633 variant genotypes TC+CC are at a higher risk of HCC. CHI3L1 polymorphisms rs880633 or rs4950928 may be potential candidates for predicting poor HCC prognosis and clinical status.
Keywords: Single nucleotide polymorphism, CHI3L1, Hepatocellular carcinoma