Abstract: Objective:To study the effects of neurotensin (NTS) on the growth and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Meth-ods: The clinicopathological characteristics of 100 patients with HCC were analyzed. The correlations between NTS and neurotensin re-ceptor 1 (NTR 1) expression and clinicopathological parameters were identified. Hep 3B hepatoma cells with different levels of NTR 1 were established via gene transfection and siRNA interference. BrdU proliferation assay, Annexin V apoptosis assay, scratch repair ex-periments, and Transwell invasion assay were used to compare the functional alterations of hepatoma cells upon different NTS stimula-tion. Results:NTS/NTR 1 expression in tissues was significantly correlated with incomplete envelope and portal vein invasion of HCC pa -tients. Exogenous NTS stimulation and NTR 1 over-expression do not affect proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cell lines. The wound clo-sure rate and invasion cell number of Hep 3B NTR 1hi were significantly higher than those of Hep 3Bwt; in addition, the wound closure rate and invasion cell number of Hep3B NTR 1-are lower than those of Hep3B wt. In parallel, NTS-treated Hep 3Bwt and Hep3B NTR 1hi cells have high -er wound closure rates and invasion cell number than NTS untreated cells. Conclusion: High NTS/NTR 1 expression correlated with ag-gressive phenotype of HCC. Exogenous NTS stimulation and NTR1 over-expression do not affect proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cell
lines, but can improve invasion.