A diagnostic marker in hepatocellular carcinoma

E2F5 is a member of the E2F transcription factor family, and plays a key role in cell growth and proliferation. Overexpression of E2F5 has been reported in various human cancers, but not in liver cancer, and its biological implication is largely unknown. It is not known whether E2F5 plays a tumor suppressor role or an oncogenic role. Furthermore, there has been no report on the expression profile of E2F5 in HCC and its biological implications on hepatocarcinogenesis.

A research article published on January 28, 2011 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. In this study, the authors investigated the expression profile of E2F5 in primary HCCs and explored the biological effects of E2F5 overexpression by knockdown of the gene.

This is the first evidence that E2F5 is commonly overexpressed in primary human HCC and that E2F5 knockdown profoundly repressed the growth of HCC cells. The overexpression of E2F5 may induce uncontrollable cell cycle progression in liver cells and eventually contribute to cancer transformation by working together with other carcinogenic factors. This study will help to understand hepatocarcinogenesis mechanisms and to define therapeutic targets of early HCC.

Reference: Jiang Y, Yim SH, Xu HD, Jung SH, Yang SY, Hu HJ, Jung CK, Chung YJ. A potential oncogenic role of the commonly observed E2F5 overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2011; 17(4): 470-477

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v17/i4/470.htm

Correspondence to: Dr. Yeun-Jun Chung, Integrated Research Center for Genome Polymorphism and Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Socho-gu, Seoul 137-701, South Korea. yejun@catholic.ac.kr

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World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2009 IF: 2.092. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.