Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR), western blot, cell viability, transwell migration and invasion, tumor spheres formation and in vivo tumor formation assays were used to examine the effects of FUS on HCC progression in HuH7 and MHCC97 cells.
We also revealed that miR-197 suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of the cells as well as the silencing of miR-197 attenuated the biological functions of FUS1.
To dissect its functional role in this context, we stably overexpressed this protein in SW872 liposarcoma and HT1080 fibrosarcoma cell lines, and were able to demonstrate that forced expression of FUS-CHOP significantly increases migration and invasion, as well as enhances lung and liver metastasis in the in vivo chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model, that is proliferation independent.
Among these genes, mRNA expression levels of CDH17 and APOE were associated with depth of tumor invasion (P = 0.0060 and P = 0.0139, respectively), and those of FUS and APOE were associated with degree of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0416 and P = 0.0006, respectively).