Role of UBE2T gene in the migration and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells and its clinical significance / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the expression and clinical significances of ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 T (UBE2T) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and explore the role of UBE2T gene expression in migration and invasion of HCC cells. Methods: The expression of UBE2T mRNA in 54 pairs of HCC tissues and the matched noncancerous liver tissues was analyzed by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. The expression level of UBE2T protein in 233 cases of HCC tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry, then the relationship between UBE2T expression and clinicopathological features of HCC patients was analyzed. The recombinant lentiviral vector pWPXL-UBE2T contained UBE2T gene sequences was constructed and further transfected into Hep3B and SMMC-7721 cells. In the other hand, the recombinant lentiviral vector GV248-shUBE2T-1 and GV248-shUBE2T-2 targeted UBE2T gene were transfected into MHCC-LM3 and SK-Hep1 cells. The forced expression and knockdown of UBE2T gene were validated by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR and Western blotting. Afterwards, the effects of UBE2T gene overexpression and silencing on migratory and invasive abilities of HCC cells were detected by Transwell chamber assays, respectively. Results: The UBE2T mRNA level in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the matched noncancerous liver tissues (P < 0.000 1). The expression of UBE2T protein was correlated with intrahepatic metastasis of HCC (P = 0.004) in 233 patients with HCC. Compared with the control group, the forced expression of UBE2T gene markedly promoted both migration and invasion of Hep3B and SMMC-7721 cells (both P < 0.01); while the knockdown of UBE2T gene obviously inhibited the migration and invasion of MHCC-LM3 and SK-Hep1 cells as compared with the negative control group (both P < 0.05). Conclusion: High expression level of UBE2T in HCC tissues is correlated with the presence of intrahepatic metastasis, and the overexpression of UBE2T gene can promote the migration and invasion of HCC cells.