Abstract:

Abstract:Objective To explore the impact of hepatic stellate cell （HSC）in hepatocellular carcinoma invasion through SDF-1/CXCR4 axis and its mechanism,and to provide basis for research on hepatocellular carcinoma  invasion. Methods The expressions of SDF-1 and CXCR4 in HSC LX02,hepatocellular carcinoma cells(MHCC97,SMMC7721,Hep3B,and HepG2) were examined by Western blotting  method  and RT-PCR method. In addition,Transwell invasion assay was carried out to analyze the influence of HSC LX02 and SDF-1 on invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells HepG2 under normal condition or CXCR4 gene silence condition. Then Western blotting method was performed to evaluate the expressions of epithelial marker E-Cadherin protein and mesenchymal marker Vimentin protein. Results Compared with hepatocellular carcinoma cells,SDF-1 was over-expressed in HSC LX02 (P<0.05).CXCR4 highly expressed  in all hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Co-culture with HSC LX02 or treatment with SDF-1 both increased the invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells HepG2 (P<0.05),and decreased E-Cadeherin protein expression (P<0.05) and increased Vimentin protein expression (P<0.05). Furthermore,after silence of CXCR4 gene by RNA jamming technique in HepG2 cells,neither co-culture with HSC LX02 nor treatment with SDF-1 had impact in invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells(P>0.05),and there were no changes in the E-Cadeherin (P>0.05) and Vimentin (P>0.05) protein expression levels. Conclusion HSC can promote hepatocellular carcinoma cells invasion through chemokine SDF-1/CXCR4 axis,and the mechanism may be realted to epithelial-mesenchymal transition of carcinoma cells.

Key words: hepatocellular carcinoma, invasion, stromal cell derived factor-1, CXCR4, stellate cell