Heat shock protein 27 (HSP27), an intracellular molecular chaperone, is involved in the pathogenesis of cancer by promoting both tumor cell proliferation and resistance to therapy. HSP27 is also present in the circulation and circulating HSP27 (sHSP27) can elicit an autoimmune response with production of antibodies. Levels of sHSP27 are enhanced in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); it is, however, unknown whether changes in HSP27 antibody levels occur in patients with HCC and can be exploited as a circulating biomarker of HCC. Our aim was to assess the potential association between newly diagnosed HCC and serum anti-HSP27 antibody levels. In this cross-sectional study, anti-HSP27 antibody levels were measured in serum samples from 71 HCC patients, 80 subjects with chronic liver disease, and 38 control subjects by immunoenzymatic assay. Anti-HSP27 antibody levels did not differ significantly among groups. However, in patients with chronic active hepatitis/cirrhosis, anti-HSP27 levels were significantly higher in subjects with a positive history of alcoholism (p = 0.03). Our data do not support the hypothesis that anti-HSP27 antibody levels may help identify patients with HCC among subjects with chronic liver disease. However, our finding that alcohol-related liver disease is associated with higher anti-HSP27 levels is novel and deserves further investigations.

热休克蛋白 27 (HSP27) 是一种细胞内分子伴侣，通过促进肿瘤细胞增殖和治疗抵抗参与癌症的发病机制。HSP27 也存在于循环中，循环中的 HSP27 (sHSP27) 可引发自身免疫反应并产生抗体。肝细胞癌 (HCC) 患者的 sHSP27 水平升高；然而，尚不清楚 HSP27 抗体水平是否会发生在 HCC 患者中，是否可以用作 HCC 的循环生物标志物。我们的目的是评估新诊断的 HCC 与血清抗 HSP27 抗体水平之间的潜在关联。在这项横断面研究中，通过免疫酶法测定了来自 71 名 HCC 患者、80 名患有慢性肝病的受试者和 38 名对照受试者的血清样品中的抗 HSP27 抗体水平。抗 HSP27 抗体水平在各组之间没有显着差异。然而，在慢性活动性肝炎/肝硬化患者中，有酒精中毒史的受试者的抗 HSP27 水平显着升高。p  = 0.03）。我们的数据不支持抗 HSP27 抗体水平可能有助于在慢性肝病受试者中识别 HCC 患者的假设。然而，我们发现酒精相关肝病与较高的抗 HSP27 水平相关是新的，值得进一步研究。