title: Expression of leucine aminopeptidase 3 (LAP3) correlates with prognosis and malignant development of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
abstract: Leucine aminopeptidases (LAPs) were associated with tumor cell proliferation, invasion and/or angiogenesis. LAP3 is one important member of this family. However, its clinical significance and biological function in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that LAP3 expression was significantly up-regulated in HCC tissues as well as cells and was closely correlated with lower differentiation, positive lymph node metastasis and high Ki-67 expression, indicating a poor prognosis. Then cell viability assays, flow cytometry assays, wound-healing assays and matrigel invasion assays were performed to demonstrate that LAP3 promoted HCC cells proliferation by regulating G1/S checkpoint in cell cycle and advanced HCC cells migration. Furthermore, we discovered that knockdown LAP3 will enhance the sensitivity of HCC cells to cisplatin, thus promoting the cell death of HCC cells. Collectively, our results indicated that up-regulated expression of LAP3 might contribute to the proliferation and metastasis of HCC. Our data gains greater insight into the cancer-promoting role of LAP3 and its functions in HCC cells, possibly providing potential therapeutic strategies for clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Oncology, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Si-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Oncology, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Shou-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Bing-Feng
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Surgery, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Long
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatic Oncology, Nantong Tumor Hospital Nantong, 226361, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Ai-Bing
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007931:Leucyl Aminopeptidase / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D014162:Transfection; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C000593380:LAP3 protein, human; D007931:Leucyl Aminopeptidase
keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); LAP3; migration; prognosis; proliferation