Wu J, Long Z, Cai H, Yu S, Liu X.
Homeobox B7 accelerates the cancer progression of gastric carcinoma cells by promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and activating Src-FAK pathway.
Onco Targets Ther 2019;
12:3743-3751. [PMID:
31190875 PMCID:
PMC6529037 DOI:
10.2147/ott.s198115]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Accepted: 04/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Aim: To study the carcinogenetic mechanism of HOXB7 in gastric cancer (GC) remains.
Methods: Two human GC cell lines — SGC7901 and SNU1 — were used for this study. SGC7901 cells were transfected with siRNA-HOXB7 (siHOXB7) to knock down HOXB7 expression, whereas, SNU1 cells were transduced with pCDNA3.1-HOXB7 to overexpress HOXB7. After transfection, cancer progression was assessed by determining cell proliferation, wound-healing process, cell cycle, apoptosis, invasion, and migration. The effect of HOXB7 on epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) was measured by observing changes in F-actin cytoskeleton and evaluating the expression of EMT markers. p-Scr and p-FAK were evaluated to assess the mechanism.
Results: Knockdown of HOXB7 suppressed cell proliferation, alleviated the wound-healing process, inhibited cell migration and invasion, and arrested the cell cycle while promoting cell apoptosis, suggesting the tumor-suppressive effect of siHOXB7 in human GC cells. On the contrary, HOXB7 overexpression showed a tumor-promoting effect on human GC cells. Moreover, we confirmed an inhibitory effect of siHOXB7 on the EMT process by preventing epithelial cells from acquiring a mesenchymal phenotype and downregulating mesenchymal markers (vimentin, β-catenin, N-cadherin, Twist) while upregulating epithelial markers (E-cadherin). Our data revealed that HOXB7 was associated with Src/FAK and favored the activation of the Src–FAK pathway in human GC cells.
Conclusion: HOXB7 accelerated the malignancy of GC, by facilitating EMT and regulating the Scr–FAK pathway.
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