The Expression and Significance of CXCR4 in Human Liver Cancer Cell Lines with Different Metastatic Potentials

Objective To detect the expression of CXCR4 in human liver cancer cell lines with different metastatic potentials and to investigate the effect of CXCR4 on proliferation and metastasis of human liver cancer.Methods Matrigel invasion assays were applied to screen cell subclones of human liver cancer cell lines(3B) with different metastatic potentials,and transwell assays were applied to observe the cell motility and invasiveness for verifying the above result.RT-PCR and Western blot were used to detect the gene and protein expression of CXCR4 in cell subclones with different metastatic potentials.CCK-8 assay was applied to detect cell growth curve and doubling time;flow cytometry was used to test cell cycle and apoptosis rate.Results Two cell subclones with high metastatic potential and low metastatic potential were obtained through invasion assays,and it was verified that invasion ability in cell subclones with high metastatic potential is greater than that in cell subclones with low-metastatic potential by transwell test.The expression level of CXCR4 in mRNA and protein level in cell subclones with high metastatic potential were significantly higher than those in cell subclones with low metastatic potential.There were significant differences between both cell subclones in cell proliferation,doubling time,cell cycle and apoptosis rate.Conclusion Overexpression of CXCR4 is highly related to metastatic potential of human liver cancer cells.CXCR4 may play an important role in malignant progression of human liver cancer.It may be an important predictor and show us some new therapeutic approaches to treat liver cancer.