Meiotic nuclear divisions 1 promotes proliferation and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma and is a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target gene

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the cancer with the highest incidence among liver cancers and how to treat this cancer effectively is still a difficult problem we must face. We selected meiotic nuclear divisions 1 (MND1) as the study object by combining data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database with prognostic survival analysis. We validated the value of MND1 in evaluating the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma through a diagnostic and prognostic model. At the same time, cellular experiments were used to demonstrate the effect of MND1 on hepatocellular carcinoma proliferation and migration. We used short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to knock down MND1 in Hun7 and HCCLM3 cell lines. Through 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and colony formation assays, we found that knocking down MND1 reduced the proliferation of cells. Through wound healing and Transwell assays, we found that knocking down MND1 reduced cell migration and invasion. Moreover, we found that MND1 can promote the proliferation, migration, and invasion of Hep3B cells by overexpressing MND1. Therefore, in general, MND1 is expected to be a gene that can effectively diagnose and treat hepatocellular carcinoma. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12032-022-01875-w.