ISSN: 1449-2288International Journal of Biological Sciences
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Int J Biol Sci 2019; 15(4):812-825. doi:10.7150/ijbs.31335 This issue Cite
Research Paper
Upregulated MMP28 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Promotes Metastasis via Notch3 Signaling and Predicts Unfavorable Prognosis
1. Institute of Glycobiological Engineering, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325035, China.
2. Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325030, China.
3. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
4. Department of Hepatic Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
5. Department of Surgery, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, 100034, China
*These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
MMP28 belongs to the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) family and functions in tissue homeostasis and development. Although many other MMPs have been reported to regulate tumor progression, the roles of MMP28 in cancer remain largely elusive. In this study, we investigated the potential roles of MMP28 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The upregulation of MMP28 was first determined by the analysis on different public datasets. Further quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis, western blot (WB) assay and immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay on tumor and tumor-adjacent samples from HCC patients confirmed the aberrant elevation of MMP28 in HCC. Pathological analysis showed that increased MMP28 was associated with tumor size, vascular invasion, TNM stage and overall survival in HCC patients. Meanwhile, upregulated MMP28 was identified as an independent prognosis factor in multivariate analysis, and the incorporation of MMP28 expression with TNM staging system established a novel model to improve the accuracy of the predictions. In vivo and in vitro data revealed that MMP28 promoted migration and invasion of HCC cells, and enhanced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) via elevating zinc finger E-box binding homeobox (ZEB) homologues levels. Furthermore, we determined that Notch3 signaling was critical for the functions of MMP28 in HCC. In conclusion, upregulated MMP28 in HCC promoted migration and invasion and predicted poor prognosis for HCC patients, and the effects of MMP28 depended on Notch3 signaling.
Keywords: MMP28, Notch3, hepatocellular carcinoma, prognosis
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