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Upregulation of TUBG1 expression promotes hepatocellular carcinoma development

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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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Author notes

  1. Zi-jian Wang and Zhi-zheng Dai have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Education, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Zi-jian Wang, Zhi-zheng Dai, Mei-zhen Hu, Ai-Long Huang & Kai-Fu Tang

  2. The First Clinical College, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Zi-jian Wang

  3. School of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Jun-nan Liu, Hang Liang, Shu-juan Zhu & Hua-jun Sheng

  4. Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Mei-mei Shen & Jian Gao

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  1. Zi-jian Wang
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Contributions

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.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kai-Fu Tang.

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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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