Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 14, 2015; 21(10): 2918-2925
Published online Mar 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i10.2918
Improved method increases sensitivity for circulating hepatocellular carcinoma cells
Hui-Ying Liu, Hai-Hua Qian, Xiao-Feng Zhang, Jun Li, Xia Yang, Bin Sun, Jun-Yong Ma, Lei Chen, Zheng-Feng Yin
Hui-Ying Liu, Hai-Hua Qian, Xiao-Feng Zhang, Jun Li, Xia Yang, Bin Sun, Jun-Yong Ma, Lei Chen, Zheng-Feng Yin, Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China
Author contributions: Liu HY and Qian HH contributed equally to this work; Yin ZF designed the study; Liu HY, Qian HH, Zhang XF, Li J and Yang X collected and analyzed the data; Liu HY, Qian HH, Zhang XF, Li J, Yang X, Sun B, Ma JY, Chen L and Yin ZF interpreted the results of the study; Liu HY and Yin ZF wrote the manuscript.
Supported by Grants from the China National Key Projects for Infectious Disease, No. 2012ZX10002012-10; and the National Nature Science Foundation of China, No. 81172207, No. 81272669 and No. 81301830.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Zheng-Feng Yin, MD, PhD, Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 225 Changhai Road, Shanghai 200438, China. yinzfk@aliyun.com
Telephone: +86-21-81875354 Fax: +86-21-81875354
Received: August 4, 2014
Peer-review started: August 4, 2014
First decision: August 15, 2014
Revised: September 10, 2014
Accepted: November 30, 2014
Article in press: December 1, 2014
Published online: March 14, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: We previously described asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR)-based positive selection for the enrichment and further detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, expression of ASGPR is heterogeneous in human HCC, and ASGPR- cells are missed by this method. In this study, we describe an improved method using depletion enrichment with identification using antibodies against ASGPR and carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1. The improved method significantly improved sensitivity for CTC enrichment, and also provided high specificity for CTC detection in patients with HCC, thereby minimizing false negative/positive results.