Knockdown of STK39 suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma by repressing the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase p38

ABSTRACT

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious malignant tumor of the liver. It has been reported that serine/threonine kinase 39 (STK39) participates in tumorigenesis. However, the role of STK39 in HCC remains unknown. In this study, the qRT-PCR and western blot assay demonstrated that STK39 expression was enhanced in HCC patients and tissues. Moreover, CCK-8 and colony formation assays confirmed that knockdown of STK39 suppressed SK-HEP-1 and Huh7 cells proliferation. Furthermore, wound healing assay and transwell assay revealed that knockdown of STK39 repressed SK-HEP-1 and Huh7 cells migration and invasion. Interestingly, knockdown of STK39 reduced p-p38/p38 ratio and levels of c-Myc. Consistently, knockdown of STK39 inhibited the HCC tumor growth in vivo. In summary, knockdown of STK39 suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells by inducing the lower levels of p-p38, which might provide a novel therapeutic target for HCC.

KEYWORDS:

• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• stk39
• p38
• proliferation
• invasion

Highlights

The expression of STK39 was promoted in HCC tissues.

Knockdown of STK39 repressed the proliferation of HCC cells.

Knockdown of STK39 repressed the invasiveness of HCC cells.

Knockdown of STK39 affected the proliferation and invasion of HCC cells by modulating the expression of p-p38.

Knockdown of STK39 suppressed the proliferation and invasion of HCC cells in vivo.

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Contribution of authors

Jian Chen and Luke Zhou designed the study, supervised the data collection, Jie Yang analyzed the data, interpreted the data, Hui Xie, Lin Liu and Youwei Li prepared the manuscript for publication and reviewed the draft of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the standards upheld by the Ethics Committee of People’s Hospital of DeYang city and with those of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments for ethical research involving human subjects.

All animal experiments were approved by the Ethics Committee of People’s Hospital of DeYang city for the use of animals and conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Laboratory Animal Care and Use Guidelines

Statement of Informed Consent

Written informed consent was obtained from a legally authorized representative(s) for anonymized patient information to be published in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deyang City Science and Technology Project. (Grant No. 2018SZS077);Deyang City Science and Technology Project. [2018SZS077.]