Nerve growth factor involvement in liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Expression of NGF and trkA^NGF HCC and cirrhotic tissues and in normal liver

N°11 Patients			Cirrhotic liver		HCC
ID#	Etiology	Child-Pugh	NGF	trkANGF	NGF	trkANGF
2	HCV	A	++	++	+	+
4	HCV	A	+	+	±	±
5	HCV	A	+	+	+	±
10	HBV	A	±	+	±	±
3	HCV	C	++	++	+	+
11	HCV	C	±	+	+	+
14	HCV/HBV/HDV	C	+	++	±	+
16	HCV	C	+	±	+	+
15	HCV	C	na	na	+	++
17	HCV	C	na	na	±	++
18	HCV	C	na	na	±	+
N° 4 Patients			Cirrhotic liver
ID#	Etiology	Child-Pugh	NGF	trkANGF
20	HCV	C (transplantation)	-	-
21	HCV	C (transplantation)	-	-
22	HCV	C (transplantation)	-	-
23	HCV	C (transplantation)	±	-
N° 5 patients			Normal liver
ID#			NGF	trkANGF
1			-	-
7			-	-
8			-	-
9			-	-
13			-	-

na: not available (HCC tissue without cirrhosis).

Table 2 Expression of NGF and trkA^NGF in liver cell types from healthy donors and from patients with cirrhosis and HCC

	Hepatocytes		Biliary epithelial cells		Endothelial cells		Spindle-shaped cells		Lymphocytes		Kupffer cells		Determination methods
Health	NGF	-	NGF	-	NGF	-	NGF	nd	NGF	+	NGF	-	CLSM (IF)
	trkANGF	-	trkANGF	-	trkANGF	-	trkANGF	nd	trkANGF	nd	trkANGF	-
HCC	NGF	+1	NGF	±	NGF	+	NGF	nd	NGF	+	NGF	+	CLSM (IF)
	trkANGF	±	trkANGF	±	trkANGF	±	trkANGF	nd	trkANGF	nd	trkANGF	±	TEM (IG)
CIRR	NGF	++1	NGF	++2	NGF	++	NGF	+	NGF	+	NGF	±	CLSM (IF)
	trkANGF	++	trkANGF	++2	trkANGF	+	trkANGF	+	trkANGF	+	trkANGF	+	TEM (IG)

IF: immunofluorescence labelling; IG: immunogold labelling; nd: not determined.

¹Immunoreaction mainly localized on cytoplasmic vesicles and endoplasmic reticulum.

²Immunoreaction mainly localized in the portion of cells near the ductal lumen.