Abstract: Objective To analyze the expression and clinical significance of histone arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) and disintegrin metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues. Methods Ninety-eight postoperative cancer tissues and 77 corresponding adjacent tissues from HCC patients archived in the department of pathology of Zhangjiagang First People's Hospital from September 2018 to September 2021 were collected. The expression of PRMT5 and ADAM17 in HCC and adjacent tissues was detect with Immunohistochemistry, and their clinical significance was further analyzed. Results The positive expression rate of PRMT5 and ADAM17 was 56.12% (55/98) and 65.31% (64/98) in HCC tissues and 15.58% (12/77) and 9.09% (7/77) in para-cancerous tissues, res[ectively, both of which were significantly higher in HCC tissues compared with para-cancerous tissues (P<0.001). Both PRMT5 and ADAM17 in HCC patients were correlated with tumor diameter, degree of differentiation, lymph node metastasis, Tumor-Lymph nodes-Metastasis (TNM) stage, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level. Moreover, PRMT5 expression was associated with cirrhosis (P<0.05). The 3-year survival rates of patients with positive expression of PRMT5 and ADAM17 were 18.18% (10/55) and 26.56% (17/64), respectively, which were significantly lower than those of 58.14% (25/43) and 52.94% (18/34) in patients with negative expression (P<0.05). Multifactorial Cox regression analysis showed that the degree of differentiation (OR=1.892, 95% CI: 1.063~3.345, P<0.001), lymph node metastasis (OR=1.964, 95%CI: 1.102~3.457, P<0.001), TNM stage (OR=2.011, 95%CI: 1.473~4.152, P<0.001), PRMT5 expression (OR=2.100, 95%CI: 1.657~3.410, P<0.001) and ADAM17 expression (OR=2.457, 95%CI: 1.974~3.469, P<0.001) were independent factors associated with the prognosis of HCC patients. Pearson correlation analysis found that in cancer tissues of HCC patients, The expression level of PRMT5 was positively correlated with that of ADAM17 (r=0.549, P<0.05). Conclusion PRMT5 and ADAM17 are both positively expressed in HCC tissues and are correlated with clinical pathological features such as tumor diameter and differentiation degree. Patients with HCC who positively express PRMT5 and ADAM17 have a lower survival rate and thus they may serve as important indicators for evaluating patient prognosis.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Protein arginine methyltransferases 5, A disintegrin and metalloprotease 17, Clinical and pathological features, Prognosis