Our in vitro and in vivo data prompted us to investigate the pattern of leptin and adiponectin expression in a tissue microarray of human HCC (140 samples) to understand their importance see more in tumor progression. Representative photomicrographs from immunostained TMAs are shown in Fig. 7A. Adiponectin expression correlated significantly and inversely with tumor size (P = 0.003), hence larger tumors showed decreased adiponectin expression as compared to smaller tumors. Analysis of

clinicopathological characteristics showed an inverse correlation between adiponectin expression, tumor size, and local recurrence (P = 0.006). Importantly, higher adiponectin expression directly correlated with increased disease-free survival (Fig. 7B,C). Immunohistochemical studies showed that 100 (74%) of HCCs had 3-4+ leptin expression (Fig. 7C); 43 (32%) had 3-4+ adiponectin expression (Fig. 7C). Leptin expression correlated significantly

with Ki-67 expression (P = 0.04) (Fig. 7C) but was not significant for PPH3. A potential limitation of TMA was the lack of an find more adequate number of controls for NASH, hepatitis C virus (HCV) in addition to normal liver. Next, we analyzed the association of leptin and adiponectin expression with NASH and non-NASH groups. HCC sample cohort included 47 samples (33%) with HCV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), HBV+HCV

diagnosis (non-NASH group), and 21 samples (15%) with NASH related liver diseases (cryptogenic, NASH, steatohepatitis), whereas no data were available regarding underlying pathological conditions for 72 samples (52%). Based on our leptin categorization, learn more there was an association with higher staining in the NASH group compared with the non-NASH group (P = 0.03), whereas there was no difference in adiponectin staining between the NASH and non-NASH groups (P = 0.40) (Supporting Fig. 2). Collectively, these data demonstrate that adiponectin inhibits the progression of HCC. The dynamic levels of leptin and adiponectin get modulated in obesity such that obesity is now considered a hyperleptinemic and hypoadiponectinemic state.3, 36 In the present study we investigated the effect of adiponectin on oncogenic actions of leptin.