RNA-binding protein RBM6 acts as a tumor suppressor gene to inhibit the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Zhihua Ye, Junkai Zhang, Yingyu Yang, Ying Wei, Lamei Li, Xinyi Wang

Journal of B.U.ON. : official journal of the Balkan Union of Oncology 2021 Mar-Apr

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To investigate whether RBM6 can serve as a suppressor gene in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and affect its progression. QPCR and Western blot were carried out to measure RBM6 expression in tissue samples collected from HCC patients with different tumor sizes or in different stages. The relationship between overall survival (OS) and RBM6 expression in patients with HCC was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival method. Meanwhile, the effects of different factors on HCC progression were evaluated through Cox regression analysis. After over-expression of RBM6 in HepG2 and HB611 cells, the cell viability, cell migration and invasion abilities and apoptosis rate were assessed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), transwell assay, and flow cytometry analysis, respectively. RBM6 expression, markedly down-regulated in HCC tissues, showed a great relevance to tumor size, TNM stage, and histological grade, and the survival rate of patients in high RBM6 expression group was higher than those in low RBM6 expression group. Besides, Cox regression analysis revealed that RBM6 expression, tumor size, TNM stage and histological grade were four independent factors affecting the OS of HCC patients. Moreover, in vitro cell experiments demonstrated that overexpression of RBM6 significantly attenuated the cell viability as well as the invasive ability while enhanced cell apoptosis. The low expression of RBM6 contributes to the improvement of the survival of patients with HCC. Therefore, RBM6 can serve as a tumor-suppressing gene to repress cell proliferation, migration and invasion and promote cell apoptosis, thereby affecting the progression of HCC.

Citation

Zhihua Ye, Junkai Zhang, Yingyu Yang, Ying Wei, Lamei Li, Xinyi Wang. RNA-binding protein RBM6 acts as a tumor suppressor gene to inhibit the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma. Journal of B.U.ON. : official journal of the Balkan Union of Oncology. 2021 Mar-Apr;26(2):402-408