Expression and correlation of ATAD2 and E-cadherin in hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the correlation and clinicopathological features of ATAD2 and E-cadherin expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),and role of ATAD2 in HCC cells invasion and metastases.Methods The expressions of ATAD2 and E-cadherin in 90 HCC specimens and 16 specimens collected from peritumoral tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) test.The correlations between ATAD2 and E-cadherin expression and clinicopathological features were analyzed.The lentiviral vector of sh-ATAD2 RNA was used to interfere with ATAD2 expression.Western blot was performed to evaluate the changes of E-cadherin and Vimentin expression in HCC cells after ATAD2 expression interference.The role of ATAD2 in HCC cells invasion and metastasis was assessed by Transwell analysis.Results ATAD2 protein expression was obviously upregulated in HCC tissue compared to peritumoral tissue (56.7％ vs.31.3％,P ＜ 0.05).Meanwhile,E-cadherin expression was significantly downregulated in HCC tissue (43.3％ vs.68.7％,P ＜0.05).ATAD2 and E-cadherin expressions were both correlated with HCC metastasis (P ＜ 0.05).Correlation analysis demonstrated that the ATAD2 expression was negatively correlated with E-cadherin (r =-0.263,P ＜ 0.05).After interfering ATAD2 expression,cell migration and invasion of HCCLM3 cells were suppressed (migration,42.5 ± 2.6 vs.78.1 ± 3.8,P ＜ 0.05;invasion,33.0 ± 4.7 vs.72.7 ± 5.6,P ＜ 0.05).Meanwhile,the E-cadherin expression was remarkably upregulated (P ＜ 0.05).However,the Vimentin expression downregulated (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions ATAD2 expression was upregulated in HCC,and silencing ATAD2 could upregulate E-cadherin expression and downregulate Vimentin expression,and inhibit the invasion and metastasis of HCC cells.Modulating E-cadherin expression may be the potential mechanism of ATAD2 in HCC invasion and metastasis.