AIM OF THE STUDY Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is common throughout the world. Most HCCs are diagnosed at an advanced stage. There is an urgent need to find new methods for screening and surveillance of individuals at risk for HCC. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum α-fetoprotein (AFP)-L3 and serum Golgi protein 73 (GP73) detection in diagnosis of HCC with different AFP concentration....

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a diagnostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A direct relationship between poor prognosis and the concentration of serum AFP has been observed. Telomerase, an enzyme that stabilizes the telomere length, is expressed by 90% of HCC. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of telomerase inhibition on AFP secretion and the involvement of the PI3K/Ak...

A combination of agarose gel electrophoresis and a newly developed technique of electro-affinity transfer was applied to the detection of circulating immune complexes of human alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and anti-AFP. After electrophoretic transfer to nitrocellulose membrane, to which affinity-purified polyclonal horse antibodies to human AFP were bound, the membranes were treated with or without r...

CXCR4, stromal cell-derived factor-1α(SDF 1α) receptor, stimulates growth and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Alpha-fetoprotein(AFP) governs the expression of some metastasis-related genes. Here we report that AFP and CXCR4 levels correlated in HCC tissues. AFP-expressing vectors induced CXCR4. In agreement, AFP depletion by siRNA decreased CXCR4. AFP co-localized and interacted w...

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-L3 was originally reported as a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-specific tumor marker, and recent accumulation of evidence has revealed that AFP-L3 frequency predicts the biological malignancy potential of HCC. However, AFP-L3 elevation from undetectable levels after curative treatment could not be discussed due to the difficulties of calculating AFP-L3 concentrations whe...

The zinc-fingers and homeoboxes 2 (ZHX2) protein was shown previously to be involved in postnatal repression of -fetoprotein (AFP) in mice. More recently, loss of ZHX2 expression was often found in human hepatcellular carcinoma (HCC), where AFP is frequently reactivated. Using HepG2 and HepG2.2.15, which express high AFP levels, we show that ZHX2 overexpression significantly decreases of AFP se...

Suppression of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels in glucocorticoid treated newborn rats was investigated. Daily intraperitoneal injection of 2 micrograms/g body weight of dexamethasone into newborn rats greatly reduced the concentration of AFP in the serum and liver cytosol. In contrast, this treatment stimulated liver ornithine decarboxylase activity. The reduction in AFP levels is not due ...

A high level of serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP) is positively associated with human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) carcinogenesis and metastasis; however, the function of AFP in HCC metastasis is unknown. This study has explored the effects of AFP on regulating metastatic and invasive capacity of human HCC cells. Forty-seven clinical patients' liver samples were collected and diagnosed; HCC cells...

BACKGROUND Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The significance of pre-treatment AFP (pt-AFP) in non-viral HCC (nvHCC) is not clear. METHODS Patients with nvHCC, referred to a Hepatobiliary Clinic from September 2011-2015 were screened. HCC was diagnosed using American Association for the Study of Liver Disease guidelines, and TNM staged. nvHCC was diagn...

A sensitive and specific immunoassay method for detecting α-fetoprotein (AFP) based on electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) was described. ECL could perform detection for a series of different concentrations of AFP. CdSe quantum dots (QDs) were used as labels and were linked to AFP antibody (anti-AFP, the secondary antibody, Ab2*). Immunoassay was carried out on a modified electrode using a...