Hao FT, Geng ZM. Transmembrane emp24 domain-containing protein 4 regulates nuclear factor kappa-B/snail signaling to influence hepatocellular carcinoma cell behaviors. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(24): 118822 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i24.118822]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zhi-Min Geng, MD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 277 Yanta West Road, Yanta District, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. drgengzhimin@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
research-article
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 28, 2026; 32(24): 118822 Published online Jun 28, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i24.118822
Transmembrane emp24 domain-containing protein 4 regulates nuclear factor kappa-B/snail signaling to influence hepatocellular carcinoma cell behaviors
Fa-Tao Hao, Zhi-Min Geng
Fa-Tao Hao, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Fa-Tao Hao, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Central Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250014, Shandong Province, China
Zhi-Min Geng, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Institutional review board statement: This study does not involve any human experiments.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The present study does not involve any animal experiments, and also does not include the acquisition, use, handling, or intervention which is related to animals. Therefore, this research does not need to accept the examination requirements of animal ethics, hence no approval file of animal ethics is needed.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The data which support the result of this study can be obtained from the corresponding author when reasonable request is made.
Corresponding author: Zhi-Min Geng, MD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 277 Yanta West Road, Yanta District, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. drgengzhimin@163.com
Received: February 6, 2026 Revised: March 8, 2026 Accepted: April 13, 2026 Published online: June 28, 2026 Processing time: 121 Days and 20.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The transmembrane emp24 domain containing protein 4 (TMED4) expression was lowered in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) SMMC-7721 cells when compared with normal LO2 cells. The artificial forced overexpression of TMED4 has obviously held down the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells. From the mechanism perspective, TMED4 made nuclear factor kappa-B p65 have higher expression, and at the same time made snail have lower expression, hence this shows that it restrains malignant phenotypes through adjusting the nuclear factor kappa-B/snail signal axis. These result findings point out that TMED4 is one potential adjustor of HCC aggression capability, and also one candidate molecular target for hereafter treatment exploration.
