肝细胞癌（HCC）在全球男性和女性中发病率分别排名第五位和第七位，也是排在第二位和第六位癌症死因，其发病中具有明显的男性优势（男女性别比4：1），吸烟和职业因素并不能完全解释男性肝癌发病率明显高于女性。因此，HCC在其发病期间可能受性激素的调控，雌激素受体α（ERα）在HCC的发生发展中发挥着重要的作用，我们前期实验发现，ERα可通过下调环状RNA circ-SMG1.72抑制HCC侵袭。生物信息学分析显示：circ-SMG1.72系列中存在miR-141-3p序列结合位点。而miR-141-3p可直接作用于靶基因GSN，抑制其表达。GSN是HCC的重要癌基因，促进肝癌侵袭。我们猜测，ERα通过下调circ-SMG1.72，进而通过miR-141-3p/GSN通路抑制HCC侵袭。本项目将对circ-SMG1.72在HCC侵袭中的作用及机制进行研究，为HCC的诊疗提供新的理论基础和实验手段。

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth and seventh most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and women, and the second and sixth cause of cancer death, respectively, across the globe. According to population-based Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results registry data, the apparent male prevalence (4:1 male to female ratio) in HCC occurrence, smoking and occupational factors do not fully explain the significantly higher incidence of male hepatocellular carcinoma than females，suggested that HCC may be regulated by sex hormones during its initiation. Estrogen receptor α（ERα） plays an important role in HCC. We found that ERα could down-regulate circ-SMG1.72 to suppress HCC invasion. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that circ-SMG1.72 has binding sites with miR-141-3p sequence. While miR-141-3p can directly target and inhibit GSN expression. GSN is an important oncogene in HCC. Together, we hypothesized that ERα could down-regulate the expression of circ-SMG1.72 to suppress HCC invasion via miR-141-3p/GSN. In this research, we will study the mechanism of circ-SMG1.72 in HCC and may help us to develop a new theoretical foundation and experimental means for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC.