RhoC/ROCK2 promotes vasculogenic mimicry formation primarily through ERK/MMPs in hepatocellular carcinoma

Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) results in the formation of an alternative circulatory system that can improve the blood supply to multiple malignant tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the potential mechanisms of RhoC/ROCK in VM have not yet been investigated in HCC. Here, RhoC expression was upregulated in HCC tissues, especially the VM-positive (VM+) group, compared to noncancerous tissues (P < 0.01), and patients with high expression of RhoC had shorter survival times (P < 0.001). The knockdown of RhoC via short hairpin RNA (shRNA) in SK-Hep-1 cells significantly decreased VM formation and cell motility. In contrast, cell motility and VM formation were remarkably enhanced when RhoC was overexpressed in HepG2 cells. To further assess the potential role of ROCK1 and ROCK2 on VM, we stably knocked down ROCK1 or ROCK2 in MHCC97H cells. Compared to ROCK1 shRNA, ROCK2 shRNA could largely affect VM formation, cell motility and the key VM factors, as well as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, p-ERK, p-MEK, p-FAK, p-paxillin, MT1-MMP and MMP2 levels were clearly altered following the overexpression of RhoC, but ROCK2 shRNA had little effect on the expression of p-FAK, which indicated that RhoC regulates FAK/paxillin signaling, but not through ROCK2. In conclusion, our results show that RhoC/ROCK2 may have a major effect on VM in HCC via ERK/MMPs signaling and might be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of HCC.