OBJECTIVETo study the characteristics of gene expression of adrenal cortical steroid synthetase and its regulatory factor in mice with H22 liver cancer of different patterns.

METHODSSyndromes revealed in mice with H22 tumor were differentiated by quantified four diagnostic methods and syndrome differentiation, and mice with commonly encountered patterns (A: evil-toxin accumulation pattern, B: qi-deficiency pattern, C: yang-qi deficiency pattern and D: qi-yin-yang deficiency pattern) were screened out for subjecting to the study. Two batches of GeneChip Mouse Exon 1.0 ST Array detection were performed in the selected mice for detecting the gene expressions of adrenal cortical steroid synthetase and its regulatory factor, with the analysis performed put stress on the differential expressions in mice of various syndrome patterns.

RESULTSData obtained from the two batches detection showed well repeatability, in which similar genes of high or low expression emerged. The adrenal cortical steroid synthetase genes, such as Cyp11a1, Star, Cyp11b2, Cyp21a1, Hsd3b and Hsd17b were highly expressed, with few difference among the four patterns. However, Cyp11a1 was down-regulated and Cyp1b2 up-regulated in all patterns; Hsd3b1 and Cyp21a1 down-regulated in pattern A and B, but up-regulated in pattern C and D. As for the expressions of the relative regulatory factors, Cyb5b and Wnt4 were down-regulated but Fdx1, Fdxr, Hsd11b1, Por, Agt and Nr 0b1 were up-regulated in all patterns; Nr5al down-regulated in pattern A but up-regulated in other three patterns; Nr4al and Nr4a2 up-regulated in pattern A and down-regulated in the others.

CONCLUSIONSThe adrenal cortical steroid synthetase genes are rather conservative and stable in mice bearing H22 liver cancer, part of the expression might be correlated to the condition of disease and essence of syndromes, embodying the differences among different patterns in the same disease.