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Inhibition of Wnt7b reduces the proliferation, invasion, and migration of colorectal cancer cells

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Abstract

Objective

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal tumors. The role of Wnt7b as a ligand of the Wnt signaling pathway in colorectal cancer remains to be studied. Through bioinformatics online analysis, we found that Wnt7b is abnormally highly expressed in a variety of gastrointestinal tumors. This study mainly explored the effects of Wnt7b regulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of SW480 cells in colorectal cancer.

Methods and results

Applying the TCGA data set, Wnt7b was found to be highly expressed in most gastrointestinal tumor samples. Real-time quantitative PCR(q-PCR), Western blotting(WB) results showed that Wnt7b was significantly higher expressed in colorectal cancer cell lines compared with normal intestinal epithelial cells. SW480 cells transfected with the sh-Wnt7b showed successful knockdown of Wnt7b. MTT colorimetry showed the proliferation ability of sh-Wnt7b group decreased significantly compared with the non-transfected group. The results of double staining flow cytometry showed that the sh-Wnt7b group had more apoptosis. Cell scratch test showed that the cell migration rate of sh-wnt7b group considerably reduced. The Transwell invasion experiment demonstrated that the number of cell invasions in the sh-Wnt7b group decreased significantly. After SW480 cells was transfected with sh-Wnt7b, the protein levels of β-catenin, CCND1, and CD44 in this group of cells were detected to be reduced by WB, and the same results were obtained by q-PCR detection of mRNA.

Conclusion

Wnt7b is highly expressed in colorectal cancer cells, which may affect the proliferation, migration, and invasion of colorectal cancer cells by activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

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Funding

This study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Grant number 31671092).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Infection, Immunology and Tumor Microenvironment, Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Occupational Hazard Identification and Control, Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, 430065, Wuhan, China

    Siyang Chen, Hui Ding, Kaiyun Wang & Kaiwen Guo

Authors
  1. Siyang Chen
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  2. Hui Ding
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  3. Kaiyun Wang
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  4. Kaiwen Guo
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Contributions

Siyang Chen, Hui Ding and Kaiyun Wang contributed equally and shared the first authorship. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Hui Ding and Kaiyun Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Siyang Chen. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kaiwen Guo.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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This is a study involving only cell experiments. The Medical ethics committee of Wuhan University of science and technology has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Chen, S., Ding, H., Wang, K. et al. Inhibition of Wnt7b reduces the proliferation, invasion, and migration of colorectal cancer cells. Mol Biol Rep 50, 1415–1424 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-08106-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-08106-5

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