The role of Nek2 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Cancer is a disease of aging. Among different types of cancer, liver cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers over the world and particularly affects people in some East Asia countries such as Korea, Japan and China. The NIMA-related kinase 2 (Nek2), which regulates centrosome cohesion, is a potential player in carcinogenesis. Our evidence showed Nek2 mRNA and protein levels are overexpressed in liver cancer cells and promotes HCC cell growth. Since Nek2 is pertinent to centrosome, we speculated that it might take part in centrosome regulation. To study the effect of Nek2 in chromosomal instability, centrosome splitting and cell cycle, a stable isoform Nek2A overexpression inducible system was generated in different Hepatocellular Carcinoma cell lines for investigations through immunofluorescent staining and cell-cytometry. For the study of centrosome, we observed that higher proportion of cells with centrosome splitting occurred in the Nek2A overexpressing cells in both HepG2 and SMMC-7721 inducible cell lines. Moreover, cell cycle analysis showed an increased content of DNA when Nek2A is overexpressed, suggesting that Nek2A induces more aneuploidy cells. To conclude, overexpression of Nek2 exacerbates chromosomal instability. Dysregulation of centrosome may be the key for understanding of regulatory mechanism of chromosomal instability by Nek2.