الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract HCC represents an international public health concern as one of the most common and deadly cancers worldwide. It is the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. In Egypt, HCC is the second most common cancer in men and the 6th most common cancers in women. In most cases, HCC develops within an established background of chronic liver disease (70–90% of all patients). The worldwide heterogeneous incidence reflects variations in the main risk factors which include cirrhosis, viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV), aflatoxin, exposure to pesticide and genetic host factors. HLA-G can interact with immunoglobulin-like transcript 2 (ILT2), which is expressed by T and B lymphocytes, Natural Killer (NK) cells, monocytes/macrophages, and dendritic cells, and with ILT4, which is expressed only by myeloid cells (i.e., dendritic cells, monocytes, and macrophages and neutrophils) The HLA-G gene exhibits a 3′UTR presenting AU-rich motifs, a poly-A signal, and several polymorphic sites that may potentially influence HLA-G transcription, translation or both by several different mechanisms. Among them, it is worth mentioning: (1) the presence (insertion) or absence (deletion) of a 14-bp fragment (INDEL polymorphism), which has been associated with mRNA stability, (2) the SNP at the +3142 position, which may be a target for certain miRNAs, degrading HLA-G mRNA, and (3) the SNP at the +3187 position, which is related to mRNA stability and degradation This study was conducted on 40 patients with HCC in addition to 40 patients with chronic hepatitis C with no radiological evidence of HCC presented to Hepatology Department, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University in the duration between February 2015 and February 2016. Twenty age and gender matched healthy subjects served as a control group. This study showed that INR, AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, and AFP were significantly higher in HCC patients compared to control group. On the other hand, Hb , platelets, total protein and albumin were significantly lower in HCC patients compared to controls. Considering HLA-G 3 UTR 14 bp polymorphism , the present study showed statistically no significant difference in distribution of the genotypes and allele frequencies between HCC and chronic hepatitis C groups also between HCC and healthy control groups. |