RESEARCH ARTICLE Drug-Metabolizing Activity, Protein and Gene Expression of UDP-Glucuronosyltransferases Are Significantly Altered in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs), the most important enzymes in body detoxification and homeostasis maintaining, govern the glucuronidation reaction of various endogenous and environmental carcinogens. The metabolic function of UGTs can be severely influ-enced by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the fifth prevalent and third malignant cancer worldwide. Particularly in China, HBV-positive HCC account for approximately 80 % of HCC patients. But rare papers addressed the alteration on the metabolism of UGTs specific sub-strates, translational and transcriptional activity of UGTs in HBV-positive HCC patients. In present study, we choose the main UGT isoforms, UGT1As, UGT1A1, UGT1A9, UGT1A4 and UGT2B7, to determine the alterations of metabolic activity, protein and gene expression of UGTs in HBV-positive HCC. The corresponding specific substrates such as genistein, SN-38, tamoxifen, propofol and zidovudine were utilized respectively in UGTs metabolic ac-tivity determination. Furthermore, the plausible mechanism responsible for UGTs alter-ations was addressed by analyzing the protein and gene expressions in tumor and the adjacent normal tissues in HBV-positive HCC. The results revealed that in the tumor huma