| Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks fifth around the world in cancer frequency and incidences in the United States has been rising. Although extensive studies identify major risk factors for better understanding the pathogenesis of HCC, the molecular mechanisms of HCC are not well understood. For this thesis, we examine what role chromatin coregulator ANCCA plays in HCC. We have observed that ANCCA is in fact overexpressed in HCC through analysis of ANCCA expression in both HCC cell culture and human tumor samples. We then determined that high levels of ANCCA is critical for HCC cell proliferation and survival, and we further investigated that ANCCA controls the expression of genes important for cell proliferation, particularly in the S to G2 or G2 to M transition of the cell cycle. Furthermore, we report that ANCCA function may vary in molecular mechanisms in different HCC cell lines and possibly in different tumors of HCC. |
