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HOXC13 promotes cervical cancer proliferation, invasion and Warburg effect through β-catenin/c-Myc signaling pathway

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Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common malignancy and is the second leading cause of death in gynecologic malignancies worldwide. The homeobox transcription factor homeobox C13 (HOXC13) has been demonstrated to play crucial roles in various cancers. However, its function in CC remains to be addressed. In the present study, upregulation of HOXC13 expression in human CC tissues was found in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset and clinical samples and was associated with tumor size, FIGO stage and lymph node metastasis. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot assays suggested that the expression of HOXC13 was up-regulated in CC cells. Cell Counting Kit (CCK)-8, colony formation and cell cycle analysis assays indicated that HOXC13 promoted the proliferation and cycle progression of CC cells in vitro. Of note, knockdown of HOXC13 hinders tumor growth of xenograft tumor mice in vivo. Moreover, transwell and glycolysis measurement assays demonstrated that HOXC13 enhanced the migration, invasion and glycolysis of CC cells in vitro. Further mechanism analysis suggested that HOXC13 participated in CC progression through regulation of the β-catenin/c-Myc signaling pathway. Collectively, HOXC13 facilitated cell proliferation, migration, invasion and glycolysis through modulating β-catenin/c-Myc signaling pathway in CC, indicating that HOXC13 may provide a promising therapeutic target for the therapy of CC.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China

    MiMi Dai, JiaJia Song, LianYun Wang & KeNing Zhou

  2. Cancer Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Zhejiang Cancer Hospital), NO.1, banshangdong Road, Gongshu District, 310000, Hangzhou, China

    Li Shu

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  1. MiMi Dai
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  2. JiaJia Song
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  3. LianYun Wang
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  5. Li Shu
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Contributions

MMD and LS designed the study, supervised the data collection, analyzed the data,

JJS and LYW interpreted the data and prepared the manuscript for publication, KNZ supervised the data collection, analyzed the data and reviewed the draft of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li Shu.

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All experiments in this study were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the 2nd Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University and performed in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

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Not Applicable.

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Written informed consent was obtained from a legally authorized representative(s) for anonymized patient information to be published in this article.

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The authors state that there are no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Dai, M., Song, J., Wang, L. et al. HOXC13 promotes cervical cancer proliferation, invasion and Warburg effect through β-catenin/c-Myc signaling pathway. J Bioenerg Biomembr 53, 597–608 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10863-021-09908-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10863-021-09908-1

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