الفهرس 
Title : Study of single nucleotide polymorphisms of some hepatocellular carcinoma related genes in Egyptian patients
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health concern in Egypt owing to the high prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCC is characterized by genetic heterogeneity that may result from alterations at multiple inherited genes. Better understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying the individual predisposition to HCC will lead to improvements in the prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of this disease. HCC incidence is characterized by obvious male predominance, yet the molecular mechanisms behind this gender bias are still unidentified. Functional variations in X-linked genes have more impact on males than females. Glypican-3 (GPC3) gene, located in the Xq26 region, has lately emerged as being potentially implicated in hepatocellular carcinogenesis. Moreover, the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), is a stem cell marker involved in the tumorigenesis and progression of many malignancies, including HCC. The current study was designed to examine the association of -784 G/C rs2267531 and -935 C/G rs62139665 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the promoter region of GPC3 and EpCAM, respectively, with HCC susceptibility, gene expression levels and overall survival (OS) in Egyptians. The study included 240 Egyptian patients comprising 130 patients diagnosed with HCV infection and 110 patients with HCV-dependent HCC. A total of 126 volunteers matched to the patient population by sex and age were enrolled in this study as controls. SNP association was studied using allelic discrimination and was confirmed by sequencing. The gene and protein expression levels of GPC3 and EpCAM were measured using RT-qPCR and ELISA, respectively. Moreover, GPC3 protein expression level was measured by Western blot