P2.03-49 Roles of CENPU in Lung Adenocarcinoma Progression and Invasion

Abstract

Centromere protein U (CENPU), a centromere protein mediating kinetochore-microtubule interaction, is critical for proper cell cycle and mitosis. It has been implicated that CENPU promotes tumorigenesis in variant malignancies. However, roles of CENPU in lung adenocarcinoma progression and underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. CENPU expression in 90 pair lung adenocarcinoma/adjacent normal lung samples was examined with immunohistochemistry (IHC). Then CENPU expression was inhibited with lentiviral-mediated shRNA strategy in human lung adenocarcinoma cell line H1299 to examine the impact of CENPU knockdown for lung adenocarcinoma progression and metastasis. Cell proliferation, colony formation, cell cycle and cell survival were analyzed by Cellomics cell counting method, colonogenesis assay, PI and Annexin V-APC staining respectively while cellular migration and invasion were determined by cell scratch and transwell test. Furthermore, expression of critical factors involved in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were determined with western blot. CENPU expression was significantly increased in lung adenocarcinomas as compared to adjacent normal lung tissues (fold change=8.54, P<0.0001) (Fig. 1A). Functionl analysis revealed that in human lung adenocarcinoma cell line H1299, CENPU knockdown impaired cell proliferation (Fig. 1B), inhibited colony formation ability (Fig. 1C) and induced cell cycle arrest (Fig. 1D). Additionally, cellular migration and invasion was also inhibited by CENPU knockdown (Fig. 1E-F). It is further shown that E-Cadherin was induced while N-Cadherin and vimentin were inhibited by CENPU knockdown (Fig. 1G), indicating that CENPU was important for EMT process and cancer metastasis. It showed that CENPU expression is significantly upregulated lung adenocarcinoma tissue. Functional analysis indicated that CENPU is critical for cell proliferation, survival, migration and metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma cell line H1299. CENPU represents a promising target for lung adenocarcinoma therapy.