Objective To investigate the expression of MMP-9 genes in primary hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods RT-PCR was used to detect MMP-9 mRNA in surgically extracted specimens from 28 patients with HCC.Results The expression of MMP-9 mRNA was significantly higher in tumor than in corresponding nontumoral tissue(P0.05).Meanwhile,the expression of MMP-9 mRNA in HCC was significantly correlated to the existence of portal vein tumor thrombus(P

Objective To investigate the expression of aquaporin 3 (AQP3) in lesions of four cuta-neous tumors. Methods Immtmohistochemistry was utilized to measure the expression of AQP3 in tissue samples from 30 patients with seborrheic keratosis, 15 patients with Bowen's disease, 32 patients with squa-mous cell carcinoma, 17 patients with malignant melanoma and 15 normal human controls. Results AQP3 was observed in all the tissue samples from both patients and controls. A significant increment was noticed in the expression of AQP3 in patients with Bowen's disease, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma compared with the normal controls (all P < 0.01), while no significant difference was found between patients with seborrheic keratosis and the controls (P > 0.05). The highest expression of AQP3 was obtained in lesions from patients with squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma, followed by those with Bowen's disease (both P < 0.01), and there was no significant difference between squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma (P > 0.05). The differentiation status of squamous cell carcinoma significantly corre-lated with the expression of AQP3 (P < 0.01). AQP3 was significantly higher in malignant melanoma with metastasis than that in malignant melanoma without metastasis (P < 0.05). Conclusion The expression of AQP3 is upregulated in malignant skin tumors.