.......................................................................................................................................... v List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. xi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xii Chapter (1): Literature review .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) ......................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 HCC Epidemiology: Incidence and Prevalence ........................................................ 1 1.1.2 Risk Factors and Prevention ..................................................................................... 1 1.1.3 Diagnosis................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.4 Staging Systems in HCC ........................................................................................... 3 1.1.5 HCC Treatment ......................................................................................................... 4 1.1.6 HCC Molecular Pathogenesis ................................................................................... 5 1.2 Cofactor of BRCA1 (COBRA1) ........................................................................................... 6 1.2.1 Negative Elongation Factor (NELF) Complex ......................................................... 7 1.2.2 Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) complex ......................................................................... 9 1.2.3 Trefoil Factor 1 (TFF1) ........................................................................................... 10 1.3 Cell Culture ......................................................................................................................... 11 Study Objectives and Experimental Design .............................................................................. 12 Chapter (2): Materials and Methods ......................................................................................... 14 2.1 Cell culture .......................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 RNA extraction, quantification and cDNA synthesis ......................................................... 16 2.3 RT-PCR ............................................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Protein extraction and quantification .................................................................................. 17 2.5 Western blotting .................................................................................................................. 17 2.6 Statistical analysis ............................................................................................................... 18 Chapter (3): Results .................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 The morphology of studied cell lines .................................................................................. 20 3.2 Molecular analysis results ................................................................................................... 21