Midnolin Regulates Liver Cancer Cell Growth In Vitro and In Vivo

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Liver cancer is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. Discovery of novel genes that contribute to the development of liver cancer will provide new insights for better understanding and treating liver cancer. To this end, we recently discovered that expression of the gene midnolin promotes liver cancer and correlates with poor prognosis in liver cancer patients. Targeting midnolin may be useful in future therapy for liver cancer. ABSTRACT: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks worldwide as one of the most lethal cancers. In spite of the vast existing knowledge about HCC, the pathogenesis of HCC is not completely understood. Discovery of novel genes that contribute to HCC pathogenesis will provide new insights for better understanding and treating HCC. The relatively obscure gene midnolin has been studied for over two decades; however, its biological roles are largely unknown. Our study is the first to demonstrate the functional significance of midnolin in HCC/cancer: Midnolin expression correlates with poor prognosis in HCC patients, and suppression of midnolin severely inhibits tumorigenicity of HCC cells in vitro and in mice and disrupts retinoic acid/lipid metabolism in these cells.