Mutations of the tumor suppressor Kruppel-like factor 6 (KLF6) gene in hepatocellular carcinoma and its effect of growth suppression on human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 / 中华肝脏病杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the mutated KLF6 gene in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to characterize its behavior in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We analyzed the DNA isolated from 23 hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and their adjacent nontumor tissues by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Direct sequencing was used to establish the incidence of mutation in exon2 of the KLF6 gene. Loss of growth suppressive function of the HCC-derived KLF6 mutants was characterized by in vitro analyzing alteration of cell cycle and MTT assay. Expression of p21WAF1, a possible downstream gene of KLF6, was detected in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 transiently transfected with KLF6 genes.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Mutations of KLF6 were found in 2 of the 23 (8.7%) hepatocellular carcinomas. The two mutations were located in the transactivation domain and one of them resulted in single amino acid substitution of TGG (W) by GGG (G) at codon 162. Unlike the wild-type KLF6, cancer-derived KLF6 mutants neither suppressed growth nor induced p21WAF1 following transfection into culture cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Mutations of the KLF6 gene may play a role in the pathogenesis of HCC, but are not the dominating mechanism resulting in inactivation of KLF6 functions. KLF6 suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation partly through upregulating expression of the p21WAF1 gene.</p>