FOXF2 deficiency promotes hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis by inducing mesenchymal-epithelial transition

The transcription factor FOXF2 is reported to be down-regulated in HCC. Its deficiency is correlated with shorter disease-free survival and overall survival of HCC patients; however, the mechanism remains to be elucidated.

In this study, we performed qRT-PCR and western blotting to confirm the down-regulated FOXF2 in HCC tissue and cell lines. Then the HCC cell line Huh7 transduced with FOXF2 shRNA was adopted in a series of in vitro and in vivo assays to evaluate the cell phenotype change, migration, invasion, proliferation, colonization of circulating cell and the formation of metastatic nodules.

We found that FOXF2 was down-regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. FOXF2 deficiency in Huh7 cells increased E-cadherin and decreased Vimentin. The down-regulation of FOXF2 impeded HCC cell migration and invasion capacity, but promoted the proliferation of HCC cells and the growth of subcutaneous tumors in nude mice, which indicated a mesenchymal-to-epithelial phenotypic change in Huh7 cells. FOXF2 deficiency enhanced the colonization of circulating HCC cell, thus promoted the formation of metastatic nodules.

FOXF2 deficiency induced mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) in Huh7 cell which might facilitate the colonization of circulating tumor cells and the formation of metastasis.