Wang Rong, Xu Haizhou, Hu Changhuan, Chen Kun, Tang Shaowen, Wu Xiaoli, Zhang Qing, Xiang Qingfeng
Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Affiliated Qingyuan Hospital (Qingyuan People' Hospital), Guangzhou Medical University, Qingyuan, 511500, China.
Department of General Surgery, The first People's Hospital of Xiaogan, Xiaogan, 432000, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 13;15(1):29739. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-15581-w.
HOPX acts as a tumor suppressor in certain cancers, but the function of HOPX, as well as its mechanism of action in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been fully elucidated. In this study, using in vitro and in vivo animal models, the effect of HOPX on the development of HCC was explored. In our study, the HOPX expression at both protein and mRNA level were found to be downregulated in HCC cells and tumor tissues. Restoration of HOPX expression was found to inhibit HCC cell invasion and migration capabilities, but produced no effect on growth. Moreover, HOPX prevented metastasis in an HCC cell metastatic mouse model. Further investigations showed that HOPX could suppress HCC cell epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by inhibiting SNAIL, an EMT transcription factor that is required for the metastasis-inhibition activity of HOPX to proceed. Our study identified HOPX as a suppressor of the development of HCC, which implies that HOPX suppresses HCC cells invasion and migration by inhibiting SNAIL.
HOPX在某些癌症中作为一种肿瘤抑制因子发挥作用，但其在肝细胞癌（HCC）中的功能及其作用机制尚未完全阐明。在本研究中，使用体外和体内动物模型，探讨了HOPX对HCC发生发展的影响。在我们的研究中，发现HCC细胞和肿瘤组织中HOPX的蛋白质和mRNA水平均下调。恢复HOPX表达可抑制HCC细胞的侵袭和迁移能力，但对生长无影响。此外，HOPX在HCC细胞转移小鼠模型中可预防转移。进一步研究表明，HOPX可通过抑制SNAIL来抑制HCC细胞上皮-间质转化（EMT），SNAIL是一种EMT转录因子，是HOPX转移抑制活性所必需的。我们的研究确定HOPX是HCC发生发展的抑制因子，这意味着HOPX通过抑制SNAIL来抑制HCC细胞的侵袭和迁移。
