AIM To investigate the clinical features ofFADD and TRADD expressions in primaryhepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and todetermine their relationship with hepaticapoptosis.METHODS FADD and TRADD expressions weredetected by immunohistochemistry and hepaticapoptosis were determined by in situ end-labeling(ISEL).RESULTS Ten(25.6%)cases of HCC weredetected to express FADD protein.The positiverate in HCC is lower than that in non-cancerousadjacent liver tissues(62.5%)(P<0.05).Inthose of grade Ⅰ-Ⅱ,8(38.1%)cases wereFADD positive,while only 2/18(11.1%)casesof grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ had detectable FADD protein(P<0.05).No relationship was found betweenFADD expression and other clinical features,such as gender,age,tumor size,differentiationor metastasis.ISEL positive cells can be seen inall cases of HCC.The hepatic apoptosis wasassociated with FADD expression as moreapoptotic cells were detected in those caseswhich had moderately to strongly positiveFADD,as compared with negative or weakpositive FADD cases(P<0.05).No relationshipwas found between FADD expression and hepaticapoptosis in non-cancerous adjacent livertissues.Fifteen of 39(38.5%)cases of HCCwere found positive for TRADD protein,andsimilar positive rate(37.5%)in non-cancerousadjacent liver tissues(P>0.05).The expressionof TRADD is correlated with HCC differentiation, as only 22.2% of moderately to highlydifferentiated HCC showed positive TRADDprotein,while as high as 52.4% of poorlydifferentiated HCC had TRADD(P<0.05),Norelationship was found between TRADDexpression and gender,age,tumor size or gradeor metastasis,although 42.9% of HCC of gradeⅠ/Ⅱ showed positive TRADD which wasslightly higher than that of grade Ⅲ/Ⅳ(33.3%,P>0.05).Hepatic apoptosis was not related toTRADD expression in HCC or non-cancerousadjacent liver tissues.CONCLUSION Loss of FADD expression playsan important role in HCC carcinogenesis,andexpression of TRADD also contributes to HCCdevelopment.The cell apoptosis in HCC isassociated with FADD expression.However,theexpression of TRADD does not correlate wellwith hepatic apoptosis in HCC. AIM To investigate the clinical features of FADD and TRADD expressions in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and todetermine their relationship with hepaticapoptosis. METHODS FADD and TRADD expressions weredetected by immunohistochemistry and hepaticapoptosis were determined by in situ end-labeling (ISEL) .RESULTS Ten (25.6% ) cases of HCC weredetected to express FADD protein.The positive rate in HCC was lower than that in non-cancerous renal tissues (62.5%) (P <0.05) .nthose of grade Ⅰ-Ⅱ, 8 (38.1%) cases were FADD positive, While only 2/18 (11.1%) cases of grade Ⅲ-IV had detectable FADD protein (P <0.05) .No relationship was found betweenFADD expression and other clinical features, such as gender, age, tumor size, differentiationor metastasis. ISEL positive cells can be seen in all cases of HCC.The hepatic apoptosis wasassociated with FADD expression as moreapoptotic cells were detected in those caseswhich had moderately to strongly positiveFADD, as compared with negative or weakpositive FADD cases (38.5%) cases of HCCwere found positive for TRADD protein, and similar positive rates (37.5%) in non-cancerous adjacent liver tissues (P <0.05) .No relationship was found between FADD expression and hepaticapoptosis in non-cancerous adjacent live tissues (P> 0.05). The expression of TRADD is correlated with HCC differentiation, as only 22.2% of moderately to highly differentiated HCC showed positive TRADD protein, while as high as 52.4% of poorly differentiated HCC had TRADD (P <0.05), Norelationship was found between TRADDexpression and gender, age, tumor size or grade of metastasis, 42.9% of HCC of grade Ⅰ / Ⅱ showed positive TRADD which wasslightly higher than that of grade Ⅲ / Ⅳ (33.3%, P> 0.05) .Hepatic apoptosis was not related to TRADD expression in HCC or non-cancerous adjacent liver tissues. CONCLUSION Loss of FADD expression plays an important role in HCC carcinogenesis, andexpression of TRADD also contributes to HCCdevelopment. The cell apoptosis in HCC isassociated with FADD expressi on.However, theeexpression of TRADE does not correlate well with hepatic apoptosis in HCC.