Cancer-associated fibroblasts up-regulate CCL2, CCL26, IL6 and LOXL2 genes related to promotion of cancer progression in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Impact of different cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) cell lines on proliferation, migration, invasion and differential expressions of genes in different hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines was investigated. Two human CAF cell lines (F26/KMUH, F28/KMUH) and two human HCC cell lines (HCC24/KMUH, HCC38/KMUH) were studied. Influence of F28/KMUH cells on expressions of genes in HCC38/KMUH cells was detected by microarray to select genes for further analysis. Both CAF cell lines promoted proliferation (all P<0.05), migration (all P<0.05) and Matrigel invasion (all P<0.0001) of both HCC cell lines. F26/KMUH cells showed stronger promoted effects on, firstly, proliferation of HCC24/KMUH cells (P=0.0064) and, secondly, migration of both HCC cell lines than F28/KMUH cells did (all P<0.002). Ten up-regulated genes (APLN, CCL2, CCL26, CXCR4, IL6, MUC1, LOXL2, PDGFA, PGK1, VEGFA) related to proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenesis of HCC detected by microarray were selected for quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis. Both CAF cell lines had same tendency of effects on differential expressions of genes in same HCC cell line, but expressions of genes between different HCC cell lines were not consistent. Only CCL2, CCL26, IL6 and LOXL2 genes were consistently up-regulated in both HCC cell lines. In conclusion, the effects of CAFs to promote proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells are influenced by the characteristics of both CAFs and HCC cells. Up-regulations of CCL2, CCL26, IL6 and LOXL2 genes in cancer cells are part of the common effects of CAFs on HCC cells.