[High expression of MPP6 predicts poor patient prognosis and promotes malignant biological behaviors of hepatocellular carcinoma cells].

[OBJECTIVES] To investigate the expression of membrane protein palmitoylated 6 (MPP6) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and analyze its correlation with clinicopathological features and patient prognosis and its impact on biological behaviors of HCC cells.

[METHODS] We examined MPP6 expressions using immunohistochemistry in tumor and adjacent tissues from 118 HCC patients undergoing surgeries in our hospital from January, 2017 to December, 2019, and analyzed the correlation of MPP6 expression levels with clinicopathological data and overall survival (OS) of the patients using Cox regression analysis. In human hepatoma Hep3B cells, the effects of lentivirus-mediated MPP6 knockdown on biological behaviors of the cells were evaluated using colony formation assay, wound-healing assay, Transwell assay and flow cytometry.

[RESULTS] Compared with adjacent tissues, HCC tissues showed significant overexpression of MPP6 (<0.001), whose expression levels was correlated with liver cirrhosis (=0.028) and baseline albumin level (=0.035) of the patients. Survival analysis suggested that HCC patients with a high expression of MPP6 had a worse prognosis (<0.001); Cox regression analysis indicated that MPP6 expression (=0.012, HR: 2.335, 95% : 1.502-3.629) was an independent predictor of OS of HCC patients following hepatectomy. In Hep3B cells, MPP6 knockdown obviously inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion (<0.05) and caused cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase (<0.001).

[CONCLUSIONS] MPP6 is highly expressed in HCC tissues and correlates with important clinicopathological features and unfavorable prognosis of the patients. MPP6 knockdown inhibits proliferation, migration and invasion and blocks cell cycle progression in G0/G1 phase.