Deregulation of the members of the Polo-Like Kinase family in human hepatocellular carcinoma development and progression

Members of the Polo-like kinase (PLK) protein family play critical roles during multiple stages of cell cycle progression, either favouring or inhibiting cell proliferation. Although either overexpression or downregulation of PLKs occurs frequently in various cancer types, no comprehensive analysis on the role of PLK proteins has been performed in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to date. In order to better understand the function of PLKs during human HCC development and progression, we assessed the levels and biologic role of PLK1, 2, 3, and 4 in a human HCC collection. Levels of PLK1 were progressively upr…