Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Apr 15, 2025; 17(4): 102084
Published online Apr 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i4.102084
MEX3A promotes cell proliferation by regulating the RORA/β-catenin pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma
Peng-Xiang Ji, Ping Zhang, Hui-Ling Zhou, Hong Yu, Yi Fu
Peng-Xiang Ji, Ping Zhang, Hand Surgery Laboratory, Suzhou Ruihua Orthopedic Hospital, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215104, Jiangsu Province, China
Hui-Ling Zhou, Hong Yu, Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Taizhou People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou School of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou 225300, Jiangsu Province, China
Yi Fu, Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Fu Y experiment design and manuscript writing; Ji PX experiment performing, data analysis, and manuscript writing; Zhang P experiment performing; Zhou HL and Yu H clinical samples collecting and data analysis.
Supported by Suzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, No. SYS2020081.
Institutional review board statement: Our study was approved by Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Taizhou People's Hospital (KY2019040).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: Our study does not involve animal experiments.
Informed consent statement: We have applied to the Ethics Committee for a waiver of informed consent signatures and have received approval. At the same time, we have provided all patients with written information about the study to ensure they fully understand the content and purpose of the research.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest to this work.
Data sharing statement: sharing statement: No data associated with this study needs to be deposited into a publicly available repository. The analysis presented in this study utilized publicly available databases through bioinformatics tools. All relevant results and findings from the bioinformatics analysis are comprehensively detailed within the manuscript and the accompanying Supplementary materials. Therefore, no additional data need to be deposited.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yi Fu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, No. 199 Renai Road, Suzhou 215123, Jiangsu Province, China. yfu@suda.edu.cn
Received: October 10, 2024
Revised: January 27, 2025
Accepted: February 14, 2025
Published online: April 15, 2025
Processing time: 166 Days and 13.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study found that MEX3A was highly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and associated with poor prognosis. Immunohistochemistry showed that MEX3A expression was positively correlated with Ki-67 and vimentin, and closely related to clinical parameters. Knockdown of MEX3A inhibited cell proliferation and cell cycle progression; attenuated expression of β-catenin, c-Myc and cyclin D1; inhibited nuclear entry of β-catenin; and downregulated epithelial-mesenchymal transition to inhibit cell migration. Transcription factor analysis found that RORA might mediate the effects of MEX3A. In conclusion, MEX3A may promote proliferation of HCC cells by regulating the RORA/β-catenin pathway.