Liprin-β1 is upregulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma and is associated with advanced tumor stage
Liprin-?1 is one of the broadly-expressed liprin family members. Dysregulation of liprin-?1 has been implicated in several types of human cancers. However, the expression of liprin-?1 and its clinicopathological significance in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains elusive. We evaluated the protein expression of liprin-?1 in HCC and non-tumor liver tissues by immunohistochemistry, and investigated the relationship between liprin-?1 expression and the clinicopathological attributes of HCC. We found that liprin-?1 expression was significantly higher in HCC than in non-tumor liver tissues. Further analysis showed that higher levels of liprin-?1 in HCC were significantly associated with the advanced clinical stage. Interestingly, liprin-?1 was not detected in cholangiocellular carcinoma specimens. These findings suggest that an elevated expression of liprin-?1 may be involved in HCC progression, providing the rationale that upregulation of liprin-?1 may serve as a novel biomarker for human HCC.