Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2020; 12(3): 276-288
Published online Mar 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i3.276
Increased KIF21B expression is a potential prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma
Hui-Qi Zhao, Bao-Long Dong, Min Zhang, Xiao-Hua Dong, Yu He, Shi-Yong Chen, Biao Wu, Xiao-Jun Yang
Hui-Qi Zhao, Bao-Long Dong, Xiao-Hua Dong, Xiao-Jun Yang, Department of General Surgery, Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Min Zhang, Department of Pathology, Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Yu He, School of Clinical Medicine, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Shi-Yong Chen, Biao Wu, School of Clinical Medicine, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750000, Gansu Province, China
Author contributions: Zhao HQ, Dong BL, and Zhang M contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors. All authors substantially contributed to the conception and design of the study as well as acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; all authors drafted the article and made critical revisions related to the intellectual content of the manuscript, and approved the final version of the article to be published.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81260326 and No. 81660398; the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province, No. 17JR5RA034.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Gansu Provincial hospital (2019-063).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao-Jun Yang, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of General Surgery, Gansu Provincial Hospital, No. 204, Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China. yangxjmd@aliyun.com
Received: October 23, 2019
Peer-review started: October 23, 2019
First decision: November 18, 2019
Revised: November 24, 2019
Accepted: December 23, 2019
Article in press: December 23, 2019
Published online: March 15, 2020
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The kinesin superfamily protein member KIF21B plays an important role in regulating mitotic progression; however, the function and mechanisms of KIF21B in cancer, particularly in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), are unknown.

AIM

To explore the role of KIF21B in hepatocellular carcinoma and its effect on prognosis after hepatectomy.

METHODS

First, data on the differential expression of KIF21B in patients with HCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas database was analyzed. Subsequently, the expression levels of KIF21B in HCC cell lines and hepatocytes were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and its biological effect on BEL-7404 cells was evaluated by KIF21B knockdown. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to validate the differential expression of KIF21B in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues from 186 patients with HCC after hepatectomy. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to assess prognosis significance.

RESULTS

KIF21B expression levels were significantly higher in HCC tissues than in corresponding adjacent normal tissues. The expression levels of KIF21B in four HCC cell lines were higher than that in normal liver cells. Functional experiments showed that KIF21B knockdown remarkably suppressed cell proliferation and induced apoptosis. Moreover, immunohistochemistry results are consistent with The Cancer Genome Atlas analysis, with KIF21B expression levels being increased in HCC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed KIF21B as an independent risk factor for overall survival and disease-free survival in patients with HCC after hepatectomy.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, our results provide evidence that KIF21B plays an important role in HCC progression and may be a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker for HCC.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, KIF21B, Proliferation, Apoptosis, Prognosis

Core tip: The kinesin superfamily protein member KIF21B plays an important role in regulating mitotic progression; however, the function and mechanisms of KIF21B in cancer, particularly in hepatocellular carcinoma, are unknown. We explored the role of KIF21B in hepatocellular carcinoma and elucidated its clinical significance. Our findings suggest that KIF21B may be a potential biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma.