title: Immediate early response protein 2 regulates hepatocellular carcinoma cell adhesion and motility via integrin β1-mediated signaling pathway.
abstract: Human immediate early response 2 (IER2) has been reported to function as a potential transcriptional factor or transcriptional co‑activator and seems to play a pivotal role in tumor cell motility and metastasis, however, its role and underlying mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown. Herein, we demonstrated that overexpression of IER2 in HCC cells increased cell adhesion to fibronectin, migration and invasion, whereas knockdown of IER2 displayed the opposite effects. In agreement with this phenotype, IER2 expression was positively correlated with the metastatic potential and integrin β1 (ITGB1) expression in HCC cell lines. Moreover, we demonstrated a critical role for IER2 in regulation of HCC cell‑extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion and motility by the transcriptionally promoted ITGB1. Furthermore, we showed that ITGB1‑focal adhesion kinase (FAK)‑Src‑paxillin signal pathway activated by IER2 may contribute to the HCC cell‑ECM adhesion and motility. These results demonstrated that IER2 promoted HCC cell adhesion and motility probably by directly increasing ITGB1 expression and subsequently activating the ITGB1‑FAK‑Src‑paxillin signal pathway.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhengxin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wenjuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yuexia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Weicheng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zijing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jingyuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225001, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Weigan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000235:genetics; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000235:genetics; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000378:metabolism; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000378:metabolism; D051417:Focal Adhesion Kinase 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D006801:Humans; D017874:Immediate-Early Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019012:Integrin beta1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D051419:Paxillin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005353:Fibronectins; D051417:Focal Adhesion Kinase 1; D017874:Immediate-Early Proteins; D019012:Integrin beta1; D051419:Paxillin; D015534:Trans-Activators; C544958:IER2 protein, human; C496061:PXN protein, human; C496050:PTK2 protein, human