被撤回的出版物: Hsp90β promotes aggressive vasculogenic mimicry via epithelial-mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinoma (Retracted article. See JUN, 2023)

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a typical hypervascular solid tumor. Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formed by aggressive tumor cells to mimic vasculogenic networks plays an important role in the tumor malignancy of HCC. Hsp90 beta promotes endothelial cell-dependent angiogenesis in HCC. However, the relationship between Hsp90 beta and VM formation is unclear. In this study, we found that Hsp90 beta is positively correlated with VM and EMT marker proteins in HCC tissues and promotes tube formation, cell migration, and invasion in vitro. Hsp90 beta interacts with Twistl and promotes its deubiquitination and stabilization to nuclear translocation and enhances the VE-cadherin promoter activity. Results of in vitro analysis indicate that Hsp90 beta enhances the tumor VM in tumor-burdened mice, and the Hsp90 inhibitor NVP-BEP800 suppresses VM formation by releasing Hsp90 beta and Twistl interaction. This study provides a potential antitumor therapy for inhibiting VM by targeting Hsp90 beta in HCC.