Effects of transmembrane protease serine 4 on the proliferation and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Objective This study investigates the effects of transmembrane protease serine 4 (TMPRSS4) on the proliferation and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods Stable TMPRSS4 over-expression cell lines were established using human HCC cells BEL-7402 which were transfected by lentiviral vectors.Expression of TMPRSS4 was measured by Western blot and RT PCR.Cell proliferation was measured by MTT analysis and HCC cell invasion was evaluated by tran swell invasion assay.Results RT-PCR and Western blot analysis showed that compared to control HCC cells (control group) and cells transfected with blank plasmid (blank plasmid group),the expression of TMPRSS4 in cells transfected with TMPRSS4 plasmid (TMPRSS4 plasmid group) was significantly increased.There were no significant differences among these three groups regarding the proliferation of HCC cells (P＞0.05).The number of cells in the TMPRSS4 plasmid group that passed through the transwell inserts was 49.3 ± 7.4,significantly higher than that of control group and blank plasmid group,which was 23.3 ± 5.0 and 19.3 ± 3.2 respectively (P＜0.05).Conclusion Therefore,the expression of TMPRSS4 can be detected in HCC,and over-expression of TMPRSS4 promotes the invasion of HCC but has no effect on cell proliferation. Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Ttransmembrane protease serine 4; Invasion; Proliferation