ABSTRACT
?ig-h_3 was first identified as a transforming growth factor-beta1-inducible gene in human lung adenocarcinoma cell line. It encodes for a secreted extracellular matrix (ECM) protein, which is thought to act on cell attachment and ECM composition. Previous study showed that ?ig-h_3 were highly expressed in human hepatoma cell lines and lowly expressed in human normal hepatic cells. The present study aimed to transfect ?ig-h_3 into 7721 cells to investigate its effect on secretion of MMPs in the transfected human hepatoma cells. Full-length ?ig-h_3 gene,cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was inserted into the eukaryotic expression vector pEGFP-C_2. The recombinant plasmid was transfected into 7721 cells with Lipofectamine2000 and Gelatin-Zymography were adopted to detect the production of MMPs in the transfected cells. Results showed that ?ig-h_3/pEGFP-C_2 recombinant expression plasmid was successfully constructed and achieved high transfection efficiency. MMPs expression of the transfected cells was promoted significantly. These results suggest that overexpression of ?ig-h_3 promoted the production of MMPs, indicating that ?ig-h_3 may play roles in the invasive and metastatic processes of hepatoma.