La protein contributes to cells proliferation and migration and serves as a potential therapeutic target for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Aim La protein is a multifunctional RNA‐binding protein involved in RNA metabolism that has been reported to promote the growth of some solid tumors. However, potential role of La in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the expression of La and its function in HCC. Methods Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) and western blot analysis were conducted to detect the expression levels of La mRNA and protein in HCC cells and tissues. The proliferation capability of cells was clarified by Cell Counting Kit‐8 and clone formation assays. Wound healing assay was carried out to assess cell migration ability. Related protein expressions were also analyzed by western blot. Results Analysis of our clinical samples showed that La mRNA and protein expression of HCC tissues was higher than those of corresponding adjacent tissues, consistent with the result of microarray datasets from Oncomine database. La was also significantly overexpressed in eight HCC cells, compared with normal hepatocytes. According to in vitro experiments, we demonstrated that knockdown of La inhibited HCC cell proliferation and migration. Conclusions Our results revealed that La expression is elevated both at the RNA and protein levels in HCC. Highly expressed La significantly promotes tumorigenesis of HCC, suggesting that La may be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of HCC.