Up-regulation of CIT promotes the growth of colon cancer cells.

Zhihai Peng,Lin Chen,Xiangying Zhu,Yu Zhang,Huamei Tang,Zehua Wu,Binyuan Zhang,Fabo Qiu,Liqun Wu,Wendi Xu

doi:10.18632/oncotarget.18615

Abstract

Colon cancer is one of the major causes of cancer mortality worldwide. However, the underlying mechanism and therapeutic targets of colon cancer have not yet been fully elucidated. In the present study, we demonstrate that citron rho-interacting, serine/threonine kinase 21 (CIT) promotes the growth of human colon cancer cells. CIT is overexpressed in human colon cancer tissues and cell lines. High expression of CIT predicts poor survival for patients with colon cancer. In colon cancer cells, CIT knockdown represses cellular proliferation and colony formation. Our in vivo xenograft experiments showed that CIT knockdown reduces the growth rate of colon cancer cells and the final tumor weight. We found that CIT knockdown induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in colon cancer cells. Further microarray and bioinformatics analyses indicated that CIT regulates the p53 signaling pathway, which may account for the effects of CIT on colon cancer cells. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that CIT may promote the development of colon cancer, at least in part, through the p53 signaling pathway. Therefore, CIT may be a potential therapeutic target for colon cancer treatment.

Highlights

Colon cancer is one of the major causes of cancer mortality worldwide
While CIT staining in normal tissues was 23.2% positive, CIT staining in cancer tissues was 67.5% positive, and CIT staining in lymph node metastasis specimens was 69.7% positive (Figure 1C and 1D, P
CIT expression is up-regulated in human colon cancer tissues, and upregulation of CIT is associated with advanced disease stage and poor survival

Summary

Introduction

Colon cancer is one of the major causes of cancer mortality worldwide. Colon cancer affects 1.23 million people and causes 608,000 deaths worldwide [1, 2]. The incidence of colon cancer varies considerably and is closely associated with a western lifestyle. Most cases of colorectal cancer are sporadic and develop slowly over several years through the adenoma-carcinoma sequence [3]. 90% for patients with stage I disease. For patients with stage IV disease, survival is only slightly greater than 10% [3, 4]. The underlying mechanism and therapeutic targets of colon cancer have not yet been fully elucidated

Methods

Results

Conclusion