Annexin A7 gene is an important factor in the lymphatic metastasis of tumors.

In the tumor malignancy progression, lymph node metastasis (LNM) is recognized as an important factor. In this study, RNA interference (RNAi) was employed to down-regulate ANXA7 gene in Hca-F cells, a hepatocarcinoma cell line with high LNM rate. There was no significant effect on cell proliferation ability, but cell division, motility, and invasion abilities were markedly inhibited. By contrast, up-regulating the expression of ANXA7 gene in Hca-P cells with lower LNM rate, cell migration ability was improved and the percentage of cells in S phase was significantly decreased in vitro. Here, we reported that the expression of Ech1, GSN and JNK1 genes, which were relevant to tumor lymphatic metastasis, had been inhibited due to down-regulation ANXA7 gene and promoted due to up-regulation ANXA7 gene by western blot analysis. These results indicated that ANXA7 is a critical factor in the development of lymphatic metastasis in hepatocarcinoma progression.