Abstract
Tubulin γ-1 (TUBG1) is a highly conserved component of the centrosome and its deregulation is involved in the development of several types of cancer. However, the role of TUBG1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. In this study, we found that TUBG1 was upregulated in human HCC cells and tissues and that TUBG1 upregulation was associated with promoter hypomethylation in HCC tissues. TUBG1 knockdown suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and migration of HCC cells. While TUBG1 expression was positively correlated with CD4 + memory T lymphocyte infiltration, it was negatively correlated with CD4 + regulatory T-cell infiltration in human HCC tissues. Furthermore, TUBG1 expression was positively correlated with the expression of genes involved in cell division. Noticeably, high expression of TUBG1 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with HCC. Overall, our findings revealed that TUBG1 promotes hepatocarcinogenesis by increasing proliferation, invasion, and migration of HCC cells and may regulate T lymphocyte infiltration. The current findings provide important insights into TUBG1 regulation in HCC, which could provide new therapeutic targets for hepatocarcinoma which has a very high incidence and mortality rate worldwide.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- BP:
-
Biological process
- CC:
-
Cellular component
- DFS:
-
Disease-free survival
- DMEM:
-
Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium
- DSS:
-
Disease-specific survival
- FBS:
-
Fetal bovine serum
- GO:
-
Gene Ontology
- GTEx:
-
Genotype-tissue expression
- HCC:
-
Hepatocellular carcinoma
- ICGC:
-
International cancer genome consortium
- KEGG:
-
Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes
- K-M:
-
Kaplan–Meier
- LIHC:
-
Liver hepatocellular carcinoma
- LIRI-JP:
-
Liver Cancer-RIKEN, Japan
- MF:
-
Molecular function
- OS:
-
Overall survival
- PFS:
-
Progression-free survival
- siRNA:
-
Small interfering RNA
- TCGA:
-
The cancer genome atlas
- TILs:
-
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
- TUBG1 :
-
Tubulin gamma-1
- TUBG2 :
-
Tubulin γ-2
- UALCAN:
-
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Cancer data analysis Portal
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers 81972648, 82172915, and 81773011) and Chongqing Medical University Program for Youth Innovation in Future Medicine (Grant Number W0084).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. K-FT conceived and designed the study. Z-jW, Z-zD, M-zH, J-nL, HL, M-mS, S-jZ, H-jS, and JG performed the experiments and analyzed the data. Z-jW and Z-zD drafted the manuscript. K-FT reviewed the manuscript. K-FT and A-LH supervised the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Wang, Zj., Dai, Zz., Hu, Mz. et al. Upregulation of TUBG1 expression promotes hepatocellular carcinoma development. Med Oncol 40, 96 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-023-01966-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-023-01966-2