FHL2 exhibits anti-proliferative and anti-apoptotic activities in liver cancer cells.

FHL2 displays tumor promoting or tumor suppressing activities depending on the types of tumor cells. In this study, we demonstrated that FHL2 overexpression inhibits the proliferation of human HCC cells Hep3B through cell cycle regulation by decreasing cyclin D1 expression while increasing the expressions of p21 and p27. FHL2 overexpression also inhibits migration and invasion of Hep3B cells through the regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Surprisingly, we also demonstrated an antiapoptotic function for FHL2 overexpression with increased resistance to doxorubicin-induced apoptosis, which indicates the separation of anti-proliferative and anti-apoptotic role of FHL2. Taken together, our results indicate FHL2 could exert anti-apoptotic effect independent of tumor growth suppression.