Small interfering RNA knockdown and a transforming growth factor-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition model were employed to investigate the biological effects of Hook1 in hepatocellular carcinoma.
In human HBV-related HCC cancerous tissue, expression of TGFBI was downregulated in 25 of the 55 (45%) patients examined, suggesting that TGFBI dysregulation could occur in HBV-related HCC development in some cases.
In this study, siRNAs (small interfering RNAs) targeted against βig-h3 were transfected into SMMC-7721 cells [a HCC (human hepatocellular carcinoma) cell line] to knockdown the expression of βig-h3.
The investigation showed that betaig-h3, a secretory extracellular matrix (ECM) protein, was upregulated in HAb18G/CD147-expressing human hepatoma T7721 cells and was downregulated by depressing HAb18G/CD147 expression.