MR-1 modulates proliferation and migration of human hepatoma HepG2 cells through myosin light chains-2 (MLC2)/focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/Akt signaling pathway.

The key of cell migration process on solid substrates is phosphorylation of myosin light chain-2 (MLC2), which is implicated in a variety of intracellular functions. The previous data show that MLC2 interacts with a novel human gene, myofibrillogenesis regulator 1 (MR-1). Here, we reported that MR-1 was specially overexpressed in human hepatoma HepG2 cells. Transient treatment of cells with small interfering RNA (siRNA) against MR-1 or stable transfection of cells with plasmid expressing MR-1-siRNA led to inhibitions of cell proliferation, migration, and adhesion. Following down-regulation of MR-1, the phosphorylations of MLC2, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and Akt were dramatically decreased, and the formation of stress fiber was destroyed by MR-1-siRNAs in hepatoma HepG2 cells. In addition, exogenous MR-1-induced as well as inherent phosphorylations of FAK and Akt were decreased by MLC kinase (MLCK) inhibitor, and F-actin polymerization inhibitor also decreased phosphorylations of FAK and Akt. Correspondingly, MR-1-enhanced migration of cells was also inhibited by these two inhibitors. These indicated that MLC2 activation and intact actin cytoskeleton were pivotal for MR-1 function. In vivo data showed that MR-1-siRNA markedly inhibited growth of human HepG2. This study suggested that overexpression of MR-1 was associated with cancer cell proliferation and migration through MLC2 and that MR-1 might be a potential cancer therapeutic target.