Upregulated expression of hematopoietic cell kinase inhibits tumor proliferation in hepatocellular carcinoma

This research focused on the role of HCK in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is one of the diseases with a high incidence and mortality. Hematopoietic cell kinase (HCK), as a Src family member of tyrosine kinases, has been reported in many tumors, such as human gastric cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. In our present study, we found elevated HCK in HCC specimens by western blot and immunohisto-chemistrical analyses. However, its role in HCC remains unclear. Furthermore, we obesrved that the expression level of HCK was positively correlated with the tumor grade, tumor size, number of tumor nodes, vein invasion and Ki-67 expression. Kaplan-Meier curve indicated that the high expression of HCK was significantly correlated with poor prognosis. In vitro, the depletion of HCK in HCC cell lines resulted in cells cycle arrest at G1/S phase. Meanwhile, the interference of HCK led to the reduction of proliferation using CCK-8 and plate colony assays. In addition, the reduced expression of HCK attenuated resistance to oxaliplatin in the HCC cells. All these findings prompted that HCK could exhibit an important role in HCC proliferation. In summary, HCK may serve as a novel prognostic marker and be a potential therapeutic target in HCC.