7B,C). These results indicate that overexpression of both Cryab and 14-3-3ζ promotes the progression of HCC. Here, the majority of our data reinforce the notion that Cryab is a positive regulator of HCC growth and aggressiveness. First, Cryab promoted HCC progression in Tamoxifen chemical structure vivo and in vitro. Second, functional and genetic screens demonstrated that Cryab overexpression fostered HCC progression by inducing EMT. We also demonstrate for the first time that Cryab complexed

with 14-3-3ζ, and elevated expression of Cryab up-regulated 14-3-3ζ protein, which relayed the signal from Cryab to activate the ERK1/2. Clinically, we found that Cryab expression correlated with BCLC staging, patients’ overall survival, and disease recurrence. Moreover, we demonstrated that Cryab overexpression activated the ERK1/2/Fra-1/slug signal to induce HCC cell EMT. The above results support

the notion that Cryab does play an important role in the progression of HCC. Based on a combination of co-IP with subsequent MS or western blot-based identification learn more of binding partners, we demonstrated that Cryab physically complexes with 14-3-3ζ. Furthermore, our results showed that the forced expression of Cryab was accompanied by up-regulation of 14-3-3ζ protein, but not 14-3-3ζ mRNA, in HCC cells. In addition, the interference of 14-3-3ζ reverses the mesenchymal phenotype conferred by Cryab overexpression, suggesting that the Cryab can protect 14-3-3ζ protein from degradation. The correlation coefficient between the Cryab and 14-3-3ζ proteins reached 0.760 in HCC tissues, supporting the notion that the Cryab-14-3-3ζ complex functions as a cooperative unit in HCC cells. This notion was further supported by the observation that the patients with overexpression of both Cryab and 14-3-3ζ had the poorest prognosis. The 14-3-3 protein belongs to a family of conserved regulatory molecules expressed in all eukaryotic cells,29 and Verteporfin clinical trial Cryab is the most abundant sHsp in heart and muscle.30 Because both Cryab and 14-3-3ζ regulate many important proteins that are essential for homeostasis,31,

32 directly targeting Cryab or 14-3-3ζ may be a challenge. Here, we failed to detect the Cryab and 14-3-3ζ complex in normal liver cells L02 (unpubl. data), which indicates that this complex may not exist in normal cells, or may only exist in very small amounts. Thus, our findings may provide an alternative molecular target for HCC therapies by promoting the dissociation of the Cryab and 14-3-3ζ complex. By gene expression analysis, co-IP with MS, bioinformatics analysis, and step-by-step RNA interference, we demonstrated the Cryab overexpression-induced hyperactivity of the ERK signal by forming a complex with 14-3-3ζ. Specifically, this ERK signal hyperactivity was resistant to sorafenib. As one of the 14-3-3 proteins, 14-3-3ζ was first identified to be associated with Raf.