Identification of HOX gene which suppresses hepatic metastasis of colon cancer

在这项研究中，我们研究了HOXD8在结肠癌肝转移的三个步骤中的作用，以证明HOXD8的抗转移功能。结果发现：高侵袭性的内皮下基底膜细胞HOXD8的表达高于弱侵袭性的细胞；细胞与肝窦内皮细胞的粘附性与HOXD8的表达水平无关；生长在裸鼠肝脏的细胞表达HOXD8的水平高于生长在盲肠的细胞。这些结果表明，HOXD8可能是一个促进或抑制转移的基因，这取决于细胞在肝转移过程中所处的阶段。

In this study, we examined the roles of HOXD8 in three steps of hepatic metastasis of human colon cancer to demonstrate anti-metastatic function of HOXD8. We found the following: the cells highly invasive of subendothelial basement membrane showed higher expressions of HOXD8 than those weakly invasive; there was no correlation between adhesiveness of the cells to hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells and the expression levels of HOXD8; the cells growing in the liver of nude mice expressed HOXD8 at higher levels than those growing in the cecum. These results suggested that HOXD8 functioned as a metastasis-enhancing or –suppressive gene depending on the step where the cells were during hepatic metastasis.