Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the cancerous expression and functional relations of glypican3 (GPC3) and sonic Hedgehog (Shh) proteins in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and hepatoma cell lines in vitro. Methods The expression of GPC3 and Shh in cancerous and adjacent noncancerous tissues in 96 patients with HCC, and in HepG2, MHCC97H, Huh7 and SMMC7721 cells was assayed by immunochemical staining or by immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting. Results The positive rates of GPC3 and Shh protein expression were 77.1% and 68.8%, and the strong expression were 60.4% and 53.1% in our 96 patients with HCC; the positive rate of GPC3 protein in well-differentiated cancerous tissues was significantly higher than that in poorly-differentiated HCC (85.7% vs. 50.0%, P<0.05), and the positive rate of Shh protein was significantly higher than that in poorly-differentiated HCC (81.0% vs. 40.0%, P<0.05); the positive rate of GPC3 protein in cancerous tissues in patients with microvascular invasion (MVI) was significantly higher than that in those without (72.7% vs. 50.0%, P<0.05), and the positive rate of Shh protein was significantly higher than that in those without (65.9% vs. 42.3%, P<0.05); the GPC3 and Shh proteins were consistently co-expressed in the cytoplasm of hepatoma cells in vitro. Conclusion The GPC3 and Shh proteins might affect the differentiation of hepatoma cells and or the MVI formation, and the two proteins might interact each other in the carcinogenesis.

Key words: Hepatoma, Glypican 3, Sonic Hedgehog, Immunohistochemistry