Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 30;24(5):418.
doi: 10.3892/ol.2022.13538. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Impact of L-type amino acid transporter 3 on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Baasansvren Selenge  1 , Shinichiro Yamada  1 , Yuji Morine  1 , Tetsuya Ikemoto  1 , Yu Saito  1 , Chie Takasu  1 , Hiroki Teraoku  1 , Mitsuo Shimada  1
Affiliations

Impact of L-type amino acid transporter 3 on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Baasansvren Selenge et al. Oncol Lett. .

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of L-type amino acid transporter 3 (LAT3) expression on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 135 patients who had undergone initial hepatic resection for HCC at Tokushima University Hospital (Tokushima, Japan) were enrolled in the present study. Immunohistochemical analysis of LAT3 and phosphorylated AKT (p-AKT) was performed using resected specimens. Clinicopathological factors, including prognosis, were compared between the LAT3-high and -low expression groups. The results demonstrated that the LAT3-high group showed significantly higher protein induced by vitamin K absence-II levels (P=0.01) compared with the LAT3-low group. The LAT3-high group showed significantly worse prognosis compared with the LAT3-low group regarding cancer-specific survival and disease-free survival (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that high LAT3 expression and multiple tumors were independent prognostic factors for cancer-specific survival. Furthermore, the rate of p-AKT-positive cases was higher in the LAT3-high group than in the LAT3-low group. Overall, these findings suggested that LAT3 expression was associated with poor prognosis of HCC and high p-AKT expression.

Keywords: HCC; LAT3; amino acid; leucine; p-AKT.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

MS declares receiving an unrestricted research grant from Bayer Yakuhin, Co. Ltd., Japan. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Representative images of immunohistochemical analysis. (A) LAT3 expression in TT and adjacent NT (magnification, ×40; scale bar, 500 µm). (B) LAT3-high. (C) LAT3-low (magnification, ×200; scale bar, 100 µm). (D) p-Akt positive. (E) p-Akt negative (magnification, ×200; scale bar, 100 µm). LAT3, L-type amino acid transporter 3; NT, normal tissue; p-AKT, phosphorylated AKT; TT, tumor tissue.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Cancer-specific survival rate in the LAT3-high and LAT3-low groups. The LAT-3 high group had a significantly worse prognosis compared with the LAT3-low group (P=0.02). LAT3, L-type amino acid transporter 3.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Disease-free survival rate in the LAT3-high and LAT3-low groups. The LAT-3 high group had a significantly worse prognosis compared with the LAT3-low group (P=0.049). LAT3, L-type amino acid transporter 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Rate of controllable recurrence in the LAT3-high and LAT3-low groups. Among recurrent cases, 40 out of 49 cases (82%) showed controllable recurrence in the LAT3-low group, while 16 out of 26 cases (62%) did in the LAT3-high group. The rate in the LAT3-high group tended to be lower than that in the LAT3-low group (P=0.06; χ2 test). LAT3, L-type amino acid transporter 3.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
p-Akt positivity rate in the LAT3-low and LAT3-high groups. The LAT3-high group showed a significantly higher p-Akt positivity rate (15 cases; 33%) compared with the LAT3-low group (8 cases; 9%) (P<0.01; χ2 test). LAT3, L-type amino acid transporter 3; p-AKT, phosphorylated AKT.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Laversanne M, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A, Bray F. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2021;71:209–249. doi: 10.3322/caac.21660. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lan T, Yuan K, Yan X, Xu L, Liao H, Hao X, Wang J, Liu H, Chen X, Xie K, et al. LncRNA SNHG10 facilitates hepatocarcinogenesis and metastasis by modulating its homolog SCARNA13 via a positive feedback loop. Cancer Res. 2019;79:3220–3234. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-4044. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang Q, Holst J. L-type amino acid transport and cancer: Targeting the mTORC1 pathway to inhibit neoplasia. Am J Cancer Res. 2015;5:1281–1294. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kanai Y. Amino acid transporter LAT1 (SLC7A5) as a molecular target for cancer diagnosis and therapeutics. Pharmacol Ther. 2022;230:107964. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2021.107964. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kaira K, Takahashi T, Murakami H, Shukuya T, Kenmotsu H, Naito T, Oriuchi N, Kanai Y, Endo M, Kondo H, et al. Relationship between LAT1 expression and response to platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients with postoperative recurrence. Anticancer Res. 2011;31:3775–3782. - PubMed