Hepatology : official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases
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It has been reported that upstream components of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling axis could be overexpressed during hepatocarcinogenesis in humans and rodents. However, the signal transduction pathways activated downstream have been poorly studied. Here, we examined whether glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta) could be a target in human hepatoma cell lines and transgenic ASV mice with hepatic expression of the SV40 large T antigen. ⋯ Finally, we observed that reexpression of IGF-2 in tumoral livers from ASV mice was associated with a marked phosphorylation of GSK-3beta. In conclusion, our results identify GSK-3beta as a molecular target of the constitutive activation of the IGF axis in in vitro and in vivo models of hepatocarcinogenesis. Persistent phosphorylation of GSK-3beta could be critical for regulation of glycogen metabolism and cell growth in hepatoma cells.