Myofibrillogenesis regulator-1 promotes cell adhesion and migration in human hepatoma cells

Myofibrillogenesis regulator-1 (MR-1) is a gene overexpressed usually in many human cancers. However, the effects of MR-1 on cell proliferation, adhesion, migration and genome-wide gene regulation are still unclear. In this study, a human hepatoma cell line that highly overexpresses MR-1, BEL-7402/MR-1 cells was established. While the high expression of MR-1 did not promote cell proliferation, it significantly increased cell spreading, adhesion and migration compared with control cells. A total of 147 genes were regulated by MR-1 expression, 46 genes were down-regulated and 101 genes were up-regulated by MR-1 overexpression. Many of these genes were related to cell adhesion, cytoskeletal regulation, MAPK signaling, and cell cycle related pathways. Western blot analysis further confirmed the regulation of pathways associated with migration by MR-1. These results suggest that MR-1 is involved in the regulation of cancer cell adhesion, migration and related gene expression.