Significance of expression of serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 7 in hepatocellular carcino-ma
Objective:To investigate the clinical significance and biological functions of serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 7(SRSF7)expression in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods:Firstly,the expression levels,clinical pathological features,functions,and pathway enrichment of SRSF7 were analyzed using HCC transcrip-tome and clinical data from TCGA database.Validation was then conducted using clinical HCC samples,Huh7,and Hep3B cell lines,which were divided into control group,overexpression group(SRSF7OE group),and knock-down group(SRSF7KD group).Proliferation and apoptosis abilities were assessed using cell counting kit-8(CCK-8)and TUNEL assays.Migration and invasion abilities were evaluated using wound healing,Transwell migra-tion,and Transwell invasion assays.Epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)-related markers'protein levels were determined by western blotting,while reverse transcription-quantitative PCR(RT-qPCR)was utilized to measure the mRNA levels of downstream regulatory genes of SRSF7.Results:Bioinformatics analysis revealed that SRSF7was highly expressed in HCC tumor tissues and was associated with tumor grade,stage,and poor prognosis(P<0.05).Western blotting and immunohistochemical results showed that SRSF7 was highly ex-pressed in tumor tissues(P<0.05).Compared with the control group,overexpression of SRSF7 promoted the pro-liferation,migration,invasion and EMT process of HCC cells;knockdown of SRSF7 could inhibit HCC cell pro-liferation,promote cell apoptosis,and inhibit HCC cell migration,invasion and EMT process(P<0.05).Conclu-sion:SRSF7 is highly expressed in HCC,and its elevated expression may promote HCC cell proliferation and in-hibit cell apoptosis by regulating the expression of downstream target genes such as PAK5and RTL1,and pro-mote cell migration and invasion by promoting EMT process,ultimately promoting HCC progression.
hepatocellular carcinomaserine/arginine-rich splicing factor 7proliferationmigration and inva-sionepithelial-mesenchymal transition