The proliferation, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels and invasion ability were substantially enhanced in U251 cells with HDAC4 overexpression, and suppressed in U251 cells with a knockdown of HDAC4 compared with that in U251 cells transfected with the negative control.
In malignant thyroid lesions, HDAC-1, HDAC-4, and HDAC-6 expression was significantly associated with tumor size (p = 0.0169, p = 0.0056, and p = 0.0234, respectively); HDAC-2 expression with lymphatic and vascular invasion (p = 0.0299 and p = 0.0391, respectively); and HDAC-4 expression with capsular invasion (p = 0.0464).
Apicidin may potentially be used as an anti-cancer agent for inhibition of cancer cell migration and invasion through the repression of MMP-2 which is related to the reduction of HDAC4.