Expression of Fibroblast Growth Factor-1 and Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 in Normal Liver and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

This study was performed to examine theimmunohistochemical expression of fibroblast growthfactor-1 and fibroblast growth factor-2 in normal liverand a total of 31 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). Reactivity for both types of angiogenic factordid not exist in any cellular component of normal liver.For HCC, variable amounts of fibroblast growth factor-1were detected in 6 of 31 cases (19.4%). There was no apparent relationship between theexpression pattern and clinicopathologic factors (P >0.1, respectively), except a positive correlation withhistologic grading (P = 0.04). No tumor showedreactivity for fibroblast growth factor-2 in their cancercells. However, both types of peptide could bedemonstrated in the pericellular stroma of HCC. With amean follow-up at 60 months, fibroblast growth factor-1 expression did not correlate with patients'outcome (P > 0.1). Our study suggested thatfibroblast growth factor-1 appears to play a certainrole in hepatocarcinogenesis.