Activation of the novel FIR/FBP-1/stathmin pathway induces proliferation and migration in human hepatocarcinogenesis

Elongation and shortening of the cellular microtubule network is tightly regulated by factors that coordinate polymer dynamics such as the microtubule de-stabilizing protein stathmin (syn: oncoprotein-18, metablastin). We have recently described that overexpression of stathmin induces proliferation and migration of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. In an expression profiling-based attempt to identify essential pathways that regulate stathmin expression in HCC cells, we identified the far upstream sequence element (FUSE) binding protein (FBP)-1 as significantly co-regulated with stathmin at the transcript- an…