HMMR promotes invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma via activating MEK/ERK signaling pathway

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of hyaluronan-mediated motility receptor (HMMR) on the invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Methods The expression levels of HMMR in HCC cell lines and tissues were detected by qRT-PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemical assay. The effects of silencing/overexpression of HMMR on the migration and invasion of HCC cells were observed by wound healing test and Transwell assay. Control HMMR cells and shRNA targeting HMMR cells were respectively injected into nude mice via tail vein to construct a mouse model of lung metastasis. Western blotting was used to detect the effect of HMMR expression on the protein levels of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Vimentin, p-MEK and p-ERK. Results HMMR was highly expressed in liver cancer cell lines, and was generally up-regulated in HCC tissues than adjacent normal tissues (P 0.05). Furthermore, MEK inhibitor U1026 significantly reduced the migration and invasion abilities of HMMR-overexpressed Huh7 cells (P < 0.01). Conclusion HMMR is highly expressed in HCC cells, and may promote the migration and invasion of HCC cells via MEK/ERK signaling pathway.

Keywords

• hepatocellular carcinoma
• hyaluronan-mediated motility receptor
• epithelial-mesenchymal transition
• metastasis
• mek/erk signaling pathway