Prognostic potential and oncogenic effects of UCH-L1 expression in hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

UCH-L1 has been implicated to playing a potential role in cancer development and progression. However, UCH-L1's role in hilar cholangiocarcinoma remains unclear. The function of UCH-L1 in hilar cholangiocarcinoma was evaluated using human tissues, molecular and cell biology, and animal models, and its prognostic significance was determined according to its impact on patient survival. In the present study, UCH-L1 was overexpressed in 62.1% of patients with primary hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Overexpression of UCH-L1 is associated with large tumor size, advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and high CA19-9 levels, and is also correlated with poor survival rates. Silencing of UCH-L1 inhibited proliferation, colony formation of hilar cholangiocarcinoma cells in vitro and suppressed tumor growth of hilar cholangiocarcinoma cells in vivo. We also observed that silencing of UCH-L1 decreased the phosphorylation level of Akt and PCNA in the xenograft experiments. Taken together, these findings suggest that UCH-L1 functions as an oncogene in the development and progression of hilar cholangiocarcinoma. UCH-L1 can serve as an independent prognostic factor and maybe a potential therapeutic target for patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma.