Molecular Mechanism of Wnt/β-catenin Signaling Pathway in Metastasis and Invasion of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Wnt signal transduction pathway has a close relationship with cancer,as its abnormal activation plays an important role in many human cancers.Metastasis and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma,the basic characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma as well as important factors which influence the therapeutic effect of hepatocellular carcinoma,are closely related with Wnt /β-catenin signal transduction pathway.β-catenin is an essential regulatory factor in Wnt /β-catenin signal transduction pathway.The expression of β-catenin is positively correlated with lymph node and liver metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.There is also a close relationship between the metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma and the expression of Tcf-4,which is a downstream transcription factor in Wnt /β-catenin signal transduction pathway.Therefore,the mutation and(or) aberrant expression of genes in Wnt /β-catenin signal transduction pathway set up the biomolecular basis for metastasis and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma.