Expression of Aurora B and alternative variant forms in hepatocellular carcinoma and adjacent tissue

Surgical resection is the effective treatment modality for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, rapid recurrence of the tumors are frequently observed even after apparently curative resection. The recurrence and prognostic assessment of patients with HCC after resection is an important clinical issue. We recently reported that aberrant expression of Aurora B is observed in primary HCC, and that it can be a predictive factor for HCC recurrence exceeding Milan criteria after curative hepatectomy. In this study we investigated the expression of the newly observed Aurora B splicing variant forms in HCC, and their roles in hepatocarcinogenisis. The expression of Aurora B and splicing variant forms were screened in 125 HCC patients (94 chronic hepatitis with cirrhosis background liver specimens), 18 metastatic liver cancer patients and 16 normal liver specimens by cDNA microarray, reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) and Real time quentitative Reverse Transcription PCR (qRT‐PCR). The results showed that expression of Aurora B splicing variant 2 (AURKB‐Sv2) variant form was absent in normal liver and was higher in metastatic liver cancer than HCC. This aberrant expression was associated with the advanced stages of HCC (P