Tumor progression in hepatocellular carcinoma may be mediated by p53 mutation.

Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often contains intratumoral subpopulations of heterogeneous cellular differentiations within each tumor. To analyze the genetic alterations of p53 in the heterogeneous subpopulations, we examined 68 intratumoral nodular lesions within 34 HCCs composed of two distinct subpopulations. The cellular differentiations were determined histologically by Edmondson's grading system. Nine (26.5%) of 34 HCCs examined were found to have genetic alterations in exons 5 to 8 of the p53 gene, resulting in amino acid substitutions. Three of these nine HCCs with p53 mutations showed genetic heterogeneity of the p53 gene within each tumor; one HCC had a single missense mutation at codon 210 (asparginine to 210-serine) in an intratumoral lesion of Edmondson Grade II and double missense mutations at codons 210 and 217 (asparginine to 210-serine and valine to 217-alanine) in another intratumoral lesion of Edmondson Grade III. The remaining two HCCs had p53 mutations only in lesions of a higher grade. In total, the p53 mutations were detected in none of eight Edmondson Grade I lesions, in five of 29 Grade III lesions (17.2%), in eight of 26 Grade III lesions (30.8%), and in three of five Grade IV lesions (60.0%). Thus, our data revealed that the p53 mutations were closely related to the progression of HCC and that, in certain cases, malignant cells which acquired the p53 mutations might develop into dedifferentiated subpopulations within individual HCC.