Effect of iron as an environmental poisonous compound upon the precocious development of human hepatocellular carcinoma in Myanmar

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The precocious development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an emergent problem in Myanmar. As a possible cause, iron overtaken from the environment is implicated. In the present study, we investigated deposition of iron in the HCC tissues and its correlation with cell proliferation and cell death. To collect the tissue samples, we cooperated with Department of Medical Research (DMR/Lower Myanmar). During the research term, we visited Yangon 3 times (December 23-28, 2004, December 15-20, 2005 and February 19-23, 2007) and newly obtained 37 specimens of HCV positive cases. In our visit, we held not only meetings with DMR and Medical University scientists, but also wet-lab courses on various histochemical techniques in which totally 84 medical researchers took part with a good reputation. In addition, we established the Agreement of Academic Cooperation between DMR/Lower Myanmar, Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Health and Nagasaki University on February 20, 2007 to promot … More e our collaboration.When 27 specimens of the newly obtained HCC tissues were examined for iron deposition, a significant deposition of iron in Myanmar HCC was found, not like that of Japanese patients. Moreover, we found that the cases with iron deposition had significantly higher Ki-67 labeling indices. Although we found Fas-Fas ligand related TUNEL positive cells in some H CC specimens, the frequency was not correlated significantly with iron deposition. Further, when we investigated liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy in iron-overloaded rat model, the peak of DNA synthesis was put forward significantly and the onset of DNA synthesis was associated temporarily with the expression of KGF and KGFR in hepatocytes. Also, we found the similar phenomena in CC14 treated iron-overloaded rats. These results strongly indicate that accelerated proliferation of hepatocytes by overloaded iron may promote the development of HCC under the conditions to induce hepatocyte proliferation such as viral infection. Less