Prognostic role of SIRT1 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical significance of silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 1 (SIRT1) expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and its association with P53 and Yes-associated protein 2 (YAP2) expression. STUDY DESIGN Observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of General Surgery, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China, from January 2000 to January 2010. METHODOLOGY Tissue microarray technique and immunohistochemistry were conducted to detect the expression of SIRT1, P53 and YAP2 proteins in 300 self-paired HCC samples. Associations with clinicopathologic manifestations were analyzed, overall survival analysis and multivariate analysis were performed. RESULTS By tissue microarray technique and immunohistochemistry on 300 self-paired HCC samples, it was found that SIRT1, P53 and YAP2 were significantly overexpressed in HCC tumor tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues. SIRT1 immunostaining localized both in the nucleus (145/300, 48.3%) and the cytoplasm (70/300, 23.3%), and the overexpression of nuclear SIRT1 was positively related to the overexpression of P53 and YAP2. Survival analysis showed that nuclear SIRT1, P53 and YAP2 overexpression predicted poor overall survival while cytoplasmic SIRT1 overexpression predicted longer overall survival. Multivariate analysis showed nuclear SIRT1 and P53 overexpression as independent tumor promoters while cytoplasmic SIRT1 overexpression as an independent tumor suppressor. CONCLUSION SIRT1 was overexpressed in HCC and the expression was positively related to P53 and YAP2 expression. As the nuclear SIRT1 functions as a tumor promoter and cytoplasmic SIRT1 functions as a tumor suppressor, the role of SIRT1 in HCC should be reconsidered.