USP22 promotes hypoxia-induced hepatocellular carcinoma stemness by a HIF1α/USP22 positive feedback loop upon TP53 inactivation

Objective We aimed to elucidate the mutual regulation mechanism of ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22) and hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF1α), and the mechanism they promote the stemness of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells under hypoxic conditions. Design Cell counting, migration, self-renewal ability, chemoresistance and expression of stemness genes were established to detect the stemness of HCC cells. Immunoprecipitation,...