Hepatitis B virus x protein promote human hepatocellular carcinoma cells proliferation by activating p38 and JNK signalling pathway / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the effects and mechanism of hepatitis B virus x protein (HBx) on human hepatocellular carcinoma cells proliferation.@*Methods@#Eukaryotic expression vector HBx-pEGFP-C1 was constructed. HepG2 cells were transfected transiently using Lipofectamine 2000. HBx expression in transfected cells were measured by RT-PCR and Western blot. Cells proliferation and apoptosis were detected by using growth curves and TUNEL staining. The protein levels of caspase-3, p-p38, p-Akt and p-JNK were measured by Western blot.@*Results@#HBx was successfully expressed in HepG2 cells. Growth curve result showed that HBx promoted cell proliferation (t=-0.8999, P=0.012). Compared with control group, the levels of p-p38(24 h) (t=- 11.058, P=0.0004) and p-JNK(48 h) (t=- 15.022, P=0.0001) in HBx-pEGFP-C1 group were increased significantly. There is no significant difference between the two groups′ apoptosis.@*Conclusions@#Transient overexpression of HBx promoted human hepatic carcinoma cells proliferation and activated the p38 and JNK signalling pathway.