Abstract: Objective To investigate the interaction between HBx protein and β-catenin, illuminate the molecular mechanism in HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma Methods Iimmunocytochemistry and Luciferase Assay methods were used to detect the endocellular location and transcriptional activity of β-catenin in normal liver cell line L02 infected by Ad-HBx. Results Iimmunocytochemistry: there was markedly increased expression of β-catenin in cytoplasm and nucleus. Luciferase Assay: Ad-HBx led to significantly increase of TCF-4-dependent transcription, the TOP count of Ad-GFP and Ad-HBx-GFP was 1.4 fold and 11fold compared to the negative control respectively(P<0.05). Conclusions There is the expression of HBx protein in human normal liver cell line (L02) with infected Ad-HBx. This data suggests that ectopic expression of HBx results in the accumulation ofβ-catenin in the cytoplasm and subsequent nuclear localization and increases TCF-4-dependent transcription in L02 cells. HBx protein is essential for the activation of wnt/β-catenin signaling by increasing the expression of β-catenin in normal liver cells.

Key words: Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, HBX protein, beta-catenin, adenoviruses, hepatocellular carcinoma