TP73 is a member of the TP53 family of proteins that is currently actively being studied for its role in tumor promotion or suppression in human cancers. As a transcription factor, similar to TP53, the TP73 protein is involved in cellular responses to stress and development. The gene maps to chromosome 1p36 that is rich in tumor suppressor genes but is frequently deleted in neuroblastoma and other tumors. Alternative gene splicing has produced many isoforms of the TP73 protein but the biological validity and the true nature of some of the variants have not been yet determined. In this study, we wish to investigate the role of TP73 in the tumorigenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma. We first established primary cell lines from the hepatic tissues of a young (HEPC-y) and old (HEPC-o) healthy individuals to use as controls in our study. We determined the level of <i>TP73</i> gene expression in HepG2, SNU449, SNU475 human Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines by RT-PCR. We also analyzed the TP73 protein level in normal and cancer patients’ tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry. Our findings were quite surprising. TP73 was only expressed in the tumor cells but not in the healthy liver cells. Moreover, methylation-specific PCR results show that <i>TP73</i> gene expression is regulated by DNA methylation.

Development of hepatocellular carcinoma and TP73 expression: Does DNA methylation play a role?

255th National Meeting (2018)

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