Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers and is associated with high mortality worldwide. The current gold standards for HCC surveillance are detection of serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) and ultrasonography; however, non-specificity of AFP and ultrasonography has frequently been reported. Therefore, alternative tools, especially novel specific tumor markers, are required. In this study, cytoplasmic membrane proteins were isolated from phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-induced invasive HepG2 cells and identified using nano-scale liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometry (NLC-MS/MS) with comparison to non-treated controls. The results showed that two proteins, magnesium transporter protein 1 (MAGT1) and A-kinase anchor protein 13 (AKAP13), were highly expressed in PMA-treated HepG2 cells. This up-regulation was confirmed by real-time RT-PCR, western blot analysis, and immunofluorescent staining studies. Furthermore, evaluation of MAGT1 and AKAP13 expression in clinical HCC tissues by immunohistochemistry suggested that both proteins were strongly expressed in tumor tissues with significantly higher average immunoreactive scores of Remmele and Stegner (IRS) than in non-tumor tissues (P ≤ 0.005). In conclusion, the expression levels of MAGT1 and AKAP13 in HCC may be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of this cancer.
Keywords: AKAP13; Hepatocellular carcinoma; MAGT1; cytoplasmic membrane proteins; immunohistochemistry; proteomics.