Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of cyclin dependent kinase submit 1 (CKS1) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its effect on the proliferation of HCC cell line, BEL-7405.Methods The expression of CKS1 in 65 pairs of HCC tissues and normal tissues was measured by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Meanwhile, the expression of CKS1 in 7 different HCC cell lines and normal liver cell line was analyzed by western blot. Furthermore, a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting CKS1 was constructed and transfected into human HCC cells BEL-7405. The effects of CKS1 knockdown on cell proliferation and gene expression were assessed by CCK-8 assay, tablet cloning assay and western blot analysis, respectively.Results CKS1 expression was extremely higher in HCC tissue than that in normal liver tissue (P<0.05). Proliferation of siRNA-transfected BEl-7405 cells (siRNA-transfected group) was extremely inhibited comparing to that of negative control or blank group (P<0.05).Conclusion The expression of CKS1 in HCC tissues and cell lines was significantly higher than that normal liver tissue or cell line, respectively. Additionally, CKS1 plays an important role in proliferation of BEL-7405 HCC cell lines, which might be a novel anti-tumor target for HCC.

Key words: HCC, CKS1, siRNA, Cell proliferation