A novel miR-219-SMC4-JAK2/Stat3 regulatory pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Hongxu Chen
Bo Zhou
Xiaobiao Zhao
Guangyao Li
Ping Chen
Jun Xie
Yi Kuang
Dong Wei
Journal: Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (2014)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: SMC4; hepatocellular carcinoma; tumor-promoting effect; cell growth; invasion
Affiliations: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Daping Hospital and Research Institute of Surgery, The Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China. .

Abstract:  Background: To understand the involvement of structural maintenance of chromosome 4 (SMC4) in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Real-time quantitative PCR and Western Blotting were applied to measure the expression of SMC4 in HCC samples and cell lines. The tumor-promoting effect of SMC4 was determined by WST-1, soft agar colony formation, cell motility and invasion assays. The SMC4 target signal pathway was identified by luciferase reporter and real-time quantitative PCR assays. Results: The upregulation of SMC4 was frequently detected in HCC samples and cell lines. Functional assays demonstrated that SMC4 could effectively promote tumor cell growth rate, colony formation in soft agar, wound-healing and invasion. Further studies showed that increased miR-219 levels caused a significant decrease in the SMC4 expression, and SMC4 inhibitor downregulated JAK2/Stat3 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels. Conclusions: Our findings provide new insight into SMC4 function and the mechanisms of growth and invasion of HCC. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Images in Figure 2D appear unexpectedly similar. *** ![file] , 
 Dear Prof. Actinopolyspora Biskrensis, Thank you for your comment. As soon as we received the comment, we looked up the original experimental data and Dr. Bo Zhouu2019s (first author of this article) PhD thesis (which was submitted in 2014 and could not be revised ever since, see Fig.1 below) and realized this was a mistake happened in the submission process. As you mentioned, the upper-left image (97-H) in Fig. 2D was mistakenly replaced by the same image for the 97-H-vector group. As you can see from the below Fig.2-4 (the original data), the transwell invasion assays were conducted three times, and the correct image for u201c97-Hu201d should be the third one in Fig.2, as we enlarged it in Fig.5. ![file] ![file] ![file] Once again thank you for pointing out this mistake. Your comment values a lot to us. We will contact JECCR for a corrigendum, and do our best avoiding this kind of unnecessary mistake in the future. , 
 #2 Thank you for your reply. For the record, the username under which I comment (Actinopolyspora Biskrensis) is randomly assigned by the PubPeer system. I am an anonymous commenter here. , 
 #3 Sorry for that. Again thank you for the comment. , 
 #4 Was a correction published for this paper? I was unable to locate this at the journal site. , 
 #5 Thank you for your kind reminder! We have contacted the journal office, and this article will be corrected by both updating the original article and by publishing an erratum article. Both articles will appear on the journal webside soon. Thank you. Erratum u00b7 Title: Correction to: A novel miR-219-SMC4-JAK2 Stat3 regulatory pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma u00b7 DOI: 10.1186 s13046-021-02028-z Update u00b7 Title: A novel miR-219-SMC4-JAK2 Stat3 regulatory pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma u00b7 DOI: 10.1186 1756-9966-33-55 ,