Several studies have revealed that the abnormal expression of
chromatin assembly factor 1, subunit A (P150) (CHAF1A) was involved in the development of some types of malignant
tumors. However, CHAF1A expression and its role in
hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain poorly characterized. In this study, we first investigated CHAF1A expression in six cell lines and 116 pairs of HCC and matched normal
tumor-adjacent tissues to evaluate the clinicopathological characteristics of CHAF1A in HCC. Then, we detected the proliferation and apoptosis in HCC cells. In addition, a subcutaneous
tumor model in nude mice was performed to evaluate
tumor growth in vivo. We found that the expression of CHAF1A was significantly higher in HCC tissues than that in adjacent nontumor tissues (P<0.01). Clinical analysis indicated that CHAF1A expression was significantly correlated with the
tumor-node-
metastasis stage,
tumor number, and
tumor differentiation in HCC tissues (P<0.05, respectively). We also found that CHAF1A may potentially function as a poor prognostic
indicator for 5-year overall and disease-free survival in patients with HCC (P<0.05, respectively). The elevated expression of CHAF1A was also observed in HCC cell lines compared with that in normal LO2 hepatic cell line (P<0.01). HCC
cancer cells exhibited inhibition of cell growth, reduction in colony-formation ability, increased cell apoptosis rate, and impaired tumorigenicity in nude mice after CHAF1A knockdown. Collectively, we propose that CHAF1A by potentially mediating
cancer cell proliferation plays an important role in promoting the development of HCC and may serve as a potential therapeutic target in HCC.