Glypican-3, overexpressed specifically in human hepatocellular carcinoma, is a novel tumor marker

With the global pandemic of hepatitis B and C infections, the incidence of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is rapidly increasing world wide. We identified glypican-3 (GPC3), a novel oncofetal gene over-expressed specifically in human HCC, as based on data of cDNA microarrays. As GPC3 is a GPI-anchored membrane protein and could be secreted, we attempted to detect secreted GPC3 protein in sera from HCC patients using Western blotting and ELISA....