Liver regeneration associated protein ALR exhibits anti-metastatic potential in hepatocellular carcinoma

Progression of HCC depends on different factors like metastasis and invasiveness. Previously, we have shown that the hepatotrophic protein ALR (Augmenter of Liver Regeneration) is highly expressed in cirrhotic livers and HCC. The aim of our study was to investigate the functional role of ALR in hepatocancerogenesis. Therefore the cytosolic ALR was re induced in hepatoma cell line HepG2 by stable transfection with a human ALR expression vector. We analyzed cell growth of HepG2-ALR in vitro and in vivo using a nude mice model. Interestingly, we could not detect an altered proliferation rate of HepG2-ALR cells neit…