LHPP suppresses proliferation, migration, and invasion and promotes apoptosis in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PaCa) is a common malignant tumor of the digestive system with poor prognosis and no ideal treatment for inoperable patients, which is partly due to delayed diagnoses. It is recently reported that the protein histidine phosphatase LHPP is a tumor suppressor in hepatocellular carcinoma, cervical cancer, and bladder cancer. So far, there is no study on the expression level of LHPP in PaCa, and its mechanism of action on tumors is unclear. In this experiment, LHPP expression was lower in cancer tissues than that in normal pancreatic tissue, and clinicopathological results showed that LHPP expression was correlated with the degree of differentiation and lymphatic metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma. The biological characteristics of LHPP in PaCa cells were examined by the cell counting kit-8 assay, transwell assay, and monoclonal formation test. The inhibitory mechanism of LHPP in PaCa cells was determined using Western blotting and flow cytometry. The results showed that LHPP restrained PaCa cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Increased LHPP expression promoted the apoptosis of PaCa cells through higher activation of cleaved-PARP and cleaved-Casp3 and lower activation of cIAP1. Importantly, the increase in LHPP enhanced PTEN expression and decreased the phosphorylated AKT level. Moreover, LHPP-induced apoptosis was diminished by SC79 (AKT activator) in PaCa cells. In conclusion, LHPP blocks proliferation, migration, and invasion and enhances apoptosis in PaCa cells through the PTEN/AKT signaling pathway.