[Expression of SATB1 in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines with different invasive capacities].

Objective: To study the expression of special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1 (SATB1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines with different invasive capacities.

Methods: SATB1 expression was detected using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR, RT-PCR, Western blotting and immunofluorescence in immortalized liver cell line HL-7702, noninvasive HCC cell lines HepG2 and SMMC-7721, MHCC97L cells with low invasiveness, and highly invasive cell lines MHCC97H and HCCLM3.

Results: In comparison with HL-7702 cells, all the 5 HCC cell lines showed overexpression of SATB1 mRNA, which was the highest in the highly invasive HCCLM3 and MHCC97H cells, followed by MHCC97L cell line, and then by SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cell lines (P<0.001). The relative expression quantity of SATB1 protein in HepG2, SMMC-7721, MHCC97L, MHCC97H, and HCCLM3 cell lines was 0.271±0.002, 0.351±0.023, 0.621±0.026, 0.878±0.026, and 1.236±0.006, respectively. SATB1 expression level in HCCLM3 cell line was 4.6-fold higher than that in HepG2 cell line (P<0.001). SATB1 was found to localize in the cytoplasm and cell nuclei of the 5 HCC cell lines, and the highly invasive HCCLM3 and MHCC97H cell lines showed a strong positive staining for SATB1 in immunofluorescence assay.

Conclusion: SATB1 expression levels differ distinctly between the HCC cell lines with different invasive capacities and are possibly associated with the metastatic potentials of the cells.