Expression of Jagged1 and its association with hepatitis B virus X protein in hepatocellular carcinoma

• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2007.02.130
• Publication Date: 2007-03-06T11:54:53Z
• Authors: Juan Gao; Caiping Chen; Liu Hong; Jun Wang; Yulei Du; Jiugang Song; Xiaodong Shao; Jing Zhang; Hua Han; Jie Liu; Daiming Fan
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Calcium-Binding Proteins; Liver Neoplasms; Gene Expression; Membrane Proteins; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Cell Line, Tumor; Trans-Activators; Humans; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Serrate-Jagged Proteins; Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins; Jagged-1 Protein

Jagged1 is one of the ligands of Notch signaling pathway, which controls cellular proliferation and differentiation, and also plays important roles in various malignant tumors. However, the expression of Jagged1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been elucidated, nor whether it is associated with hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx). In this study, we found that Jagged1 was highly expressed in 79.2% (42/53) of HCC tissues compared with adjacent nontumor liver (P <0.05), and its expression was found to be closely related with HBx (rs=0.522, P <0.001) in HCC tissues. Our in vitro study also showed that alteration of HBx expression in HCC cell lines led to a consistent change of Jagged1. Moreover, Jagged1 was found to co-localize and directly interact with HBx in HCC tissues and HBx expressed HCC cell lines. Our results reveal that Jagged1, which is regulated by HBx, may contribute to the development of HCC.