Expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in human hepatocellular carcinoma and its role in portal vein tumor thrombus

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to investigate the expression of CXCR4 in portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) tissue and its possible role in the invasiveness of tumor thrombus cells. METHODS We detected differential expression of CXCR4 between PVTT and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by an immunohistochemical assay. Lentivirus-mediated RNA interference and a migration assay were performed on human primary cells derived from PVTT to study the impact of CXCR4 on the invasiveness of HCC. RESULTS The expression of CXCR4 in tumor thrombus tissue was higher than that in HCC tissue. The invasion ratio of PVTT cells was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) after being infected with a CXCR4-targeting siRNA lentivirus, indicating that downregulation of CXCR4 by lentivirus-mediated RNA interference significantly impaired the invasive potential of PVTT. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that CXCR4 is an effective curative target for hepatocellular carcinomas with PVTT.