Expression of HULC in human glioma and its regulatory mechanism on proliferation and invasion of tumor cells

LIU Dayuan; ZHANG Caicai

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2017.21.003

Abstract：Objective To observe the expression of highly up-regulated in liver cancer (HULC) in human glioma and to explore its regulatory mechanism on proliferation and invasion of glioma cells. Methods Nineteen cases of normal brain tissues, 13 cases of low-grade, and 39 cases of high-grade glioma tissue samples were collected, and the expression of HULC was detected by RT-PCR. Human glioma cells U87 were randomly divided into the infection group 1, infection group 2, and control group. In vitro, U87siHULC 1 and U87siHULC 2 constructed with lentiviral transfection were used to interfere the expression of HULC in the infection group 1 and infection group 2, respectively. RT-PCR was used to detect interference efficiency. MTT was used to detect the ability of cell proliferation (490 nm relative absorbance), and Transwell invasion assay was used to detect the ability of the invasion (transmembrane cell number). Western blotting was used to detect the protein expression of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related molecules including E-cadherin, Snail and Vimentin, and cancer stemness-related molecule CD133 and invasion-related molecule matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2). Results The expression level of HULC mRNA in high-grade gliomas was higher than that in low-grade gliomas and normal brain tissues (all P<0.05). The expression level of HULC mRNA, the ability of cell proliferation and invasion, transmembrane cell number, and the expression of E-cadherin, Snail, Vimentin, MMP-2, and CD133 of the infection group 1 and infection group 2 were higher than those of the control group (all P<0.05). Conclusion HULC is highly expressed in human glioma tissues, and can promote cell proliferation and invasion by promoting the process of cell EMT and up-regulating the expression of MMP-2 and CD133.