Correlation of Preoperative Gd-EOB-DTPA-Contrast-Enhanced MRI With TGF-β1 Expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of preoperative gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) -enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) related signs in predicting transforming growth factor-β1(TGF-β1) gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and methods: Sixty patients with HCC (55 males, mean age 52.6±12 years) who underwent preoperative MRI enhancement were retrospectively analyzed. Qualitative and quantitative features of Gd-EOBDTPA-enhanced MRI in these pathologically confirmed HCC patients were analyzed. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were performed to determine the mRNA and protein levels of TGF-β1 in HCC. The relationship between these imaging features and TGF-β1 expression level in HCC was evaluated by rank sum test, correlation analysis and logistic regression analysis. Results: RT-PCR indicated that the expression level of TGF-β1 mRNA was statistically significant with the change of hepatobiliary signal (P=0.009). Immunohistochemical results indicated that the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value of tumor was statistically significant at the protein level (P=0.038).There was no statistical significance in the distribution of other image features. Binary logistic regression analysis suggested that heterogeneous signals in hepatobiliary phase were independent risk factors for high TGF-β1 expression in HCC (P=0.012,OR=5.333,95%CI:1.437-19.801). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that ADC value was not an independent risk factor for TGF-β1 expression. Conclusions: heterogeneous signal performance in the hepatobiliary phase and/or ADC values of HCC are potential indicators of high expression of TGF-β1. Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI may be useful in the selection of targeted therapies for patients with HCC.