Author(s)

Ling Wang, Valerie Vanhooren, Sylviane Dewaele, Xue-En Liu, Claude Libert, Feng-Min Lu, Hui Zhuang, Cuiying Chitty Chen

Department for Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, VIB, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Microbiology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, Chin.
Department of Microbiology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.

Purpose: Alteration of liver function during pro- gression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis affects the serum glycoprotein pattern. In this study, the changes in the N-glycome in liver tis- sue from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B virus infection were investigated to find out the relationship between this maker and liver disease. Methods: Twenty patients, 11 with cirrhosis and 9 with hepatocellular carcinoma, and 15 healthy donors were involved in this study. Liver protein N-glycans were profiled using the DSA-FACE technique developed in our laboratory. To further analyze the fucosylation status of these liver glycans Western lectin blots of total liver proteins were performed using Aspergillus oryzae lectin (AOL) as probe, which is a carbohydrate- binding protein that recognizes specifically α-1,6-fu- cosylated glycans. Results: The N-glycome of liver proteins in patients with HBV related HCC and cirrhosis was analyzed. Compared with healthy donors, the N-glycome had significantly less (p < 0.05) high mannose (M8) in both groups of patients. The total core α-1,6-fucosy-lation in total liver glycoproteins was dramatically increased during the progress of hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis compared to the controls. Conclusion: These results show that fucosylation not only increases in serum proteins but also in liver tissue itself of patients with HBV related HCC and cirrhosis.

N-Glycome; DSA-FACE; Fucosylation, HCC; Cirrhosis

Wang, L. , Vanhooren, V. , Dewaele, S. , Liu, X. , Libert, C. , Lu, F. , Zhuang, H. and Chen, C. (2012) Alteration of liver N-glycome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Open Journal of Gastroenterology, 2, 1-8. doi: 10.4236/ojgas.2012.21001.