Prognostic Value of Combined Aquaporin 3 and Aquaporin 5 Overexpression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND Aquaporin (AQP) 3 and AQP 5 are involved in tumorigenesis and tumor progression of several tumor types. AIM To investigate expression patterns and clinical significance of AQP3 and AQP5 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of AQP3 and AQP5 in HCC tissues. RESULTS Immunohistochemistry analysis showed the increased expression of AQP3 and AQP5 protein levels in HCC tissues compared with their adjacent nonneoplastic tissues (both P < 0.001). In addition, combined AQP3 and AQP5 protein expression was significantly associated with serum AFP (P = 0.008), tumor stage (P = 0.006), and tumor grade (P = 0.006). Moreover, HCC patients highly expressing both AQP3 and AQP5 proteins had worse 5-year disease-free survival and 5-year overall survival (P = 0.002 and 0.005, resp.). Furthermore, the Cox proportional hazards model showed that combined AQP3 and AQP5 protein expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for both 5-year disease-free survival (P = 0.009) and 5-year overall survival (P = 0.01) in HCC. CONCLUSION Our data suggest for the first time that the aberrant expression of AQP3 and AQP5 proteins may be strongly related to tumor progression and prognosis in patients with HCC. The overexpression of AQP3 in combination with upregulation of AQP5 may be an unfavorable prognostic factor for HCC.