Molecular clone and functional study of a novel hepatoma associated gene

HTA is a novel hepatoma associated gene screened by bioinformatic strategies in our previous study. In the present investigation, the full-length sequence of the HTA gene was cloned by 3'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and 5'-RACE, which was 1414 bp and the open reading frame (ORF) was constituted with 3 exons and 2 introns. There are two types of splicing of the mRNA of HTA. Northern blot analysis showed that the 1.4 kb HTA mRNA and 1.7 kb HTA mRNA transcripts were present in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines HepG2 and QGY-7703 but not in the normal cell line L02 and the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Overexpression of the HTA gene in the hepatic cell line QSG-7701 via stable transfection can promote its proliferation rate and colony forming ability and change the cell cycle distribution of the cell lines. These results showed that the HTA gene is a potential therapeutic target in HCC and the clarification of its gene structure and sequence information provide an essential tool for future research.