Progress of vimentin in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical mechanism related to invasion, metastasis and drug resistance. Vimentin(VIM), as the biomarker of EMT, functions in regulating EMT and forms epithelial-like cancer stem cells and itself methylation, and exosomes excrete VIM directly or indirectly, which leads to invasiveness and proliferation, chemotherapy resistance and postoperative recurrence of HCC. Importantly, combine detection of circulating VIM and AFP level in patients' serum samples, significantly improved the sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of HCC, and predict poor prognosis.

Keywords

• vimentin|cancer stem cells|vim methylation|exosomes