Downregulation of ACSM3 promotes metastasis and predicts poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Understanding mechanisms of cancer metastasis is crucial for reduction of cancer mortality. Acyl-CoA medium-chain synthetase 3 (ACSM3) is an acyl-CoA synthetase which takes part in the first step of fatty acid metabolism. However, the expression, clinical significance and biological function of ACSM3 remain unknown in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, the expression and prognostic relevance of ACSM3 were investigated by tissue microarray and HCC clinical samples. Migration and invasion assays were carried out for functional analysis in vitro and a xenograft model was used to analyze the effects of ACSM3 on cancer metastasis in vivo. Furthermore, human phospho-kinase array assays were performed to explore molecular mechanisms of ACSM3 in HCC. The results showed ACSM3 was downregulated in HCC tissues. HCC patients with low expression of ACSM3 exhibited poor prognosis. Overexpression of ACSM3 attenuated migration and invasion of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo and downregulated the phosphorylation of WNK1 and AKT. Our findings indicate ACSM3 is a novel prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for HCC.