A biochemical comparison of normal human liver and hepatocellular carcinoma ferritins

Abstract

1. The iron contents, gel migration rates and isoelectric-focusing patterns of normal liver and hepatocellular carcinoma ferritins from the same patients were compared. 2. Sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation showed that the number of iron atoms per ferritin molecule was decreased to approximately half in carcinoma tissue when compared with normal liver. 3. On electrophoresis, hepatocellular carcinoma ferritin migrates faster and is therefore more negatively charged than normal liver ferritin, thus refuting the general view that the more negatively charged a ferritin molecule the greater its iron content. 4. Comparison of tumour and normal liver ferritin subunit compositions on acid/urea/polyacrylamide gels showed hepatocellular carcinoma ferritin to contain an additional, more negatively charged, subunit to normal liver ferritin. 5. Isoelectric focusing showed that hepatocellular carcinoma tissue contains isoferritins with isoelectric points intermediate between the ranges of normal liver and normal heart isoferritins.

The Abnormal Carbohydrate Composition of the Dysfibrinogenemia Associated With Liver Disease*

“…This tumorassociated alkaline phosphatase has an increased negative charge which has been postulated to be related to an increased sialic acid content similar to that seen in placental alkaline phosphatase.2s Human hepatoma tissue has also yielded an abnormal ferritin with an increased negative charge and a lower iron content than liver ferrithZ6 This hepatoma isoferritin is similar to the isoferritin found in fetal liver in early gestation. 26 Fetal fibrinogen has been reported to have an increased sialic acid content and abnormal fibrin monomer polymerization similar to the dysfibrinogenemia associated with h e p a t~m a .~. 27 The similarity between hepatoma isoferritin and fetal isoferritin and between the dysfibrinogenemia associated with hepatocellular disease and fetal fibrinogen 9~1~ suggests a reversion to a more primative evolutionary level of glycoprotein production and may provide clues to the mechanism of disordered glycoprotein synthesis in liver disease.28 Annals New York Academy of Sciences…”

Serum ferritin level after resection of hepatocellular carcinoma. Correlation with alpha-fetoprotein level

“…1.2. [6][7][8] Materials and Methods Serum ferritin levels were serially estimated in 24 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) for 4 to 8 weeks after resection of the tumor. Patient ages ranged from 17 to 77 years (average, 55.9 years).…”