Androgen and estrogen receptors in hepatocellular carcinoma and in the surrounding noncancerous liver tissue

✍ Scribed by Shin Ohnishi; Tohru Murakami; Takashi Moriyama; Keiji Mitamura; Michio Imawari

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 414 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840060320

✦ Synopsis

Both androgen and estrogen receptors were studied in human hepatocellular carcinoma and noncancerous liver tissue surrounding it. Androgen receptor was detected in the cytosol and/or nucleosol of 4 of 8 cancerous tissues and 1 of 6 noncancerous tissues. The levels of androgen receptor in hepatocellular carcinomas ranged from 3.4 to 37.6 fmoles per mg protein with dissociation constants (&) of 0.226 -51.3 x lo-' M. That in the surrounding noncancerous tissue was 2.1 fmoles per mg protein with & of 0.941 x lo-* M. Estrogen receptor was detected in the cytosol of 1 of 7 cancerous tissues, while it was detected in the cytosol and/or nucleosol of 3 of 7 noncancerous tissues. The level of estrogen receptor in hepatocellular carcinoma was 4.9 fmoles per mg protein with & of 1.20 x lo-' M, and those in the surrounding noncancerous tissues ranged from 2.6 to 1,073 fmoles per mg protein with & of 0.223 -3.15 X

lO-'M. The results suggest that the expression of androgen receptor may be augmented in association with malignant transformation of hepatocytes while the expression of estrogen receptor may be rather suppressed and that some of hepatocellular carcinomas may be androgen-dependent.