Background: Through data mining the Stanford Microarray Database, the stathmin 1 (STMN1) transcript was found to be frequently upregulated in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with low alpha-fetoprotein level. The molecular mechanism of STMN1 upregulation in HCCs remained unclear.
Methods: Quantitative RT-PCR, immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry, and transfection of expression or small hairpin RNA interference plasmids, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and quantitative ChIP assays were performed in HCC specimens or 2 distinct HCC-derived cell lines.