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Knockdown of E-cadherin expression of endometrial epithelial cells may activate Wnt/β-catenin pathway in vitro

  • General Gynecology
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

E-cadherin, a transmembrane glycoprotein mediating Ca2+-independent homotypic cell–cell adhesion in epithelial cell, plays an essential role in metastasis. It has been postulated that E-cadherin downregulation is a crucial mechanism in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. To evaluate the effect on the cell behavior after knockdown of E-cadherin gene (CDH1) in cultured human endometrial epithelial cells (EECs) isolated from normal endometrium.

Methods

EECs were isolated from the endometrial tissues of fertile woman who underwent total hysterectomy due to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia III. CDH1 expression was knocked down by small hairpin RNA. The EECs transfected with empty vector served as control. Transwell assay was used to test EECs migration or invasion. qRT-PCR and western blot were used to detect mRNA and protein levels.

Results

The results showed that knockdown of E-cadherin expression can increase cell migration and invasion, and up-regulate mRNA and protein levels of β-catenin, cyclinD1, and c-myc.

Conclusions

Down-regulation of E-cadherin expression may activate the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in endometrial cells, which may together participate in the occurrence of endometriosis.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gynecology, Fourth Hospital, Hebei Medical University, Jiankang Street 12, Shijiazhuang, 050011, China

    Xiaoxiong Zhu & Shan Kang

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hebei Cancer Institute, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China

    Yan Li, Rongmiao Zhou & Na Wang

Authors
  1. Xiaoxiong Zhu
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  2. Yan Li
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  3. Rongmiao Zhou
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  4. Na Wang
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  5. Shan Kang
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Contributions

SK: Protocol development. YL: Protocol development and manuscript writing. XZ: Performed the experiments and manuscript writing. RZ: Data analysis. NW: Data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shan Kang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This study was approved by Fourth Hospital’s Ethics Committee, Hebei Medical University.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all recruited subjects.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81270673).

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Zhu, X., Li, Y., Zhou, R. et al. Knockdown of E-cadherin expression of endometrial epithelial cells may activate Wnt/β-catenin pathway in vitro. Arch Gynecol Obstet 297, 117–123 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-017-4560-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-017-4560-0

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