Correlation of overexpression of macrophage migration inhibitor factor with clinicopathological features with tissue microarray

Objective To explore the potential relationship between the expression of macrophage migration inhibitor factor(MIF) in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) tissues and clinical pathological features. Methods MIF expression in paraffin-embedded tissues containing 93 HCC in tissue microarray was detected with immunohistochemistry method. Western blot was used to examine the MIF expression in 4 pairs of tumor and peri-tumor tissues respectively. Results MIF staining was located in cytoplasm and nuclear of carcinoma cell and the positive expression rate of MIF was 70.97% in carcinoma tissue. The MIF immunostaining rate in III~Ⅳ grade of HCC(Edmondson) was 79.45%,significantly higher than thatin I~II grade of HCC(40.20%)(χ2=3.943,P =0.035). The difference of MIF expression rates(78.57% versus 47.83%) between the larger tumors(≥3.5 cm) and the smaller tumors (3.5 cm) was of statistically significance (P = 0.005). The MIF immunostaining rates between HCC tissues with and without metastasis(86.36% versus 66.20%) was no difference(χ2= 3.207,P = 0.061). There was no significant difference of MIF immunostaining among different ages,genders,HBsAg situation and AFP levels. MIF expression in HCC tumor tissue(T) were significantly higher than that in peri-tumor tissue(P). Conclusions MIF may be potentially related to the tumor growth and differentiation. The enlargement of samples will be needed for further studies on the relationships between MIF expression and the HCC metastasis.