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Objective To investigate the surgical treatment effect of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) combined with bile duct tumor thrombus and the impact of Satoh classification on patient prognosis. Methods The clinical data of 29 patients with HCC combined with bile duct tumor thrombus who underwent radical surgery (anatomical liver resection/irregular liver resection + bile duct incision and embolectomy) in the Affiliated Huai'an No.1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2010 to October 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. According to Satoh classification, there were 9 cases of type Ⅰ, 6 cases of type Ⅱ, and 14 cases of type Ⅲ. Results All 29 patients successfully completed the operation, with perioperative death in 1 case (type Ⅲ) and loss to follow-up in 1 case (type Ⅱ). The overall 1-year and 3-year survival rates of patients after surgery were 60.7% and 53.6%, respectively. The 1-year disease-free survival rates of types Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ were 6/9, 3/5, and 6/14, respectively, and the 3-year disease-free survival rates were 5/9, 2/5, and 3/14, respectively. Conclusion For HCC patients combined with bile duct tumor thrombus, active anatomical liver resection/irregular liver resection + bile duct incision and embolectomy can achieve good surgical results. Satoh classification has certain guiding significance for judging patient prognosis.

The abnormal change of octamer transcription factor 4 (OCT4) is associated with tumor progression; however, its effect on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) behavior remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between HCC and OCT4. In the present study, IHC, western blot analysis, and QRT-PCR were performed to identify differentially expressed OCT4 in a series of HCC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. In addition, the functions of OCT4 on HCC progression were studied in vitro. Silencing of OCT4 with siRNA was performed in HCC cell lines, and the impact on proliferation, migration, and the EMT marker of HCC was analyzed. Our results found that OCT4 levels were significantly higher in HCC tissues compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Furthermore, OCT4 siRNA significantly reduced the proliferation rate of SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells, inhibited the migration and inversion, and could reverse EMT in HCC cells, indicating that OCT4 plays a critical role in HCC progression. Our data suggest that the pathogenesis of human HCC may be mediated by OCT4, and thus, OCT4 could represent selective targets for the molecularly targeted treatments of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are capable of regulating cell differentiation and pluripotency. The objective of the present study was to explore the effect of lncRNA cancer upregulated drug resistant (CUDR) on the hepatic differentiation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HuMSCs). HuMSCs were subjected to a hepatogenic differentiation protocol. The level of CUDR was monitored by reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR (RT‑qPCR) following certain stages of hepatic differentiation. Lentivirus transfection was used to achieve CUDR overexpression. The hepatocyte‑related proteins and mRNAs were then examined by immunofluorescence, ELISA and RT‑qPCR analyses. The results showed that CUDR was upregulated during the hepatic differentiation of HuMSCs. Upregulation of CUDR can improve hepatic differentiation of HuMSCs, including hepatocyte‑related genes and proteins. In addition, it was also found that liver‑enriched transcription factors were upregulated after CUDR overexpression. Moreover, there was an association between the Wnt/β‑catenin pathway and CUDR. In summary, these results demonstrated that the overexpression of CUDR could improve the hepatic differentiation of HuMSCs, therefore it could be an ideal source for regenerative therapy.

The abnormal change of octamer transcription factor 4 (OCT4) is associated with tumor progression; however, its effect on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) behavior remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between HCC and OCT4. In the present study, IHC, western blot analysis, and QRT-PCR were performed to identify differentially expressed OCT4 in a series of HCC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. In addition, the functions of OCT4 on HCC progression were studied in vitro. Silencing of OCT4 with siRNA was performed in HCC cell lines, and the impact on proliferation, migration, and the EMT marker of HCC was analyzed. Our results found that OCT4 levels were significantly higher in HCC tissues compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Furthermore, OCT4 siRNA significantly reduced the proliferation rate of SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells, inhibited the migration and inversion, and could reverse EMT in HCC cells, indicating that OCT4 plays a critical role in HCC progression. Our data suggest that the pathogenesis of human HCC may be mediated by OCT4, and thus, OCT4 could represent selective targets for the molecularly targeted treatments of HCC.

Certain pseudogenes may regulate their protein-coding cousins by competing for miRNAs and play an active biological role in cancer. However, few studies have focused on the association of genetic variations in pseudogenes with cancer prognosis. We selected six potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in cancer-related pseudogenes, and performed a case-only study to assess the association between those SNPs and the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in 331 HBV-positive HCC patients without surgical treatment. Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard models were used for survival analysis. We found that the A allele of rs9909601 in E2F3P1 was significantly associated with a better prognosis compared with the G allele [adjusted hazard ratio (HR)  =  0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI)  =  0.56-0.86, P  =  0.001]. Additionally, this protective effect was more predominant for patients without chemotherapy and transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment. Interestingly, we also detected a statistically significant multiplicative interaction between genotypes of rs9909601 and chemotherapy or TACE status on HCC survival (P for multiplicative interaction < 0.001). These findings indicate that rs9909601 in the pseudogene E2F3P1 may be a genetic marker for HCC prognosis in Chinese.