Functional Role Of Fhl2 In The Splicing Machinery Of Liver Cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly lethal cancer with increasing worldwide incidence. The four-and-a-half LIM domain protein 2 (FHL2) has been identified as an oncogene / tumor suppressor gene in a tissue/cell specific manner by acting as an adaptor protein to form different complexes and involving in various signaling pathways. To clarify the intriguing functions of FHL2, we have identified a batch of interacting partners of FHL2 by immunoprecipitation and liquid chromatography coupling with mass spectrometry. Many of these proteins, including SNRNP70, DAZAP1, SFPQ, TIAL1 and so on, are involved in spliceosome components and mRNA surveillance. The interaction among several proteins and FHL2 has been confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation. To further elucidate the functional role of FHL2 in the splicing process in liver cancer cells, we have studied the transcriptomes of FHL2 overexpression and FHL2 knockdown liver cells, whereas empty vector and scrambled siRNA were used as controls respectively. Followed by bioinformatics analysis, we found significant concordance between the immunoprecipitation and transcriptome datasets. Selected genes were further validated by real-time PCR such as FGFR4. In summary, FHL2 is probably regulating the mRNA splicing by interacting with components of the splicing machinery and modulating splicing related genes at the transcriptional level. Citation Format: Ye Cao, Minghua Liu, Yi Yang, Yinfeng Zhang, Kwok Wing Tsui. Functional role of FHL2 in the splicing machinery of liver cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2867.