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Overexpression of Hiwi Inhibits the Cell Growth of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia K562 Cells and Enhances Their Chemosensitivity to Daunomycin

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Abstract

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal disorder characterized by excessive accumulation of myeloid cells in the peripheral blood. In the present study, to investigate the role of Hiwi in leukemogenesis, lentivirus-mediated Hiwi overexpression was performed in a CML cell line, K562 cells. Our data revealed that Hiwi protein expression was undetectable in K562 cells, and its overexpression suppressed cell proliferation, induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 and G2/M phases, and promoted apoptosis in K562 cells in vitro. Expression of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, was decreased in cells expressing Hiwi, whereas that of pro-apoptotic proteins, Bax, activated caspase-3, -9, and cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase were increased. Additionally, Hiwi upregulation enhanced the chemosensitivity of CML cells to daunomycin. Our study illustrates that expression deletion of Hiwi may be involved in the pathogenesis of human CML and suggests a possible role of Hiwi in regulating the cell growth, cell cycle, and apoptosis of CML cells in vitro.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a Grant from the Foundation of Department of Science and Technology, Jilin Province (No.: 200705181).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, 71 Xinmin Avenue, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, People’s Republic of China

    Yalin Wang, Yan Jiang, Cuicui Bian, Chao Ma, Xiaolin Hu & Ziling Liu

  2. Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical College, Chengde, 067000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Dong

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  1. Yalin Wang
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  2. Yan Jiang
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  3. Cuicui Bian
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  4. Yi Dong
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  5. Chao Ma
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  6. Xiaolin Hu
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  7. Ziling Liu
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Correspondence to Ziling Liu.

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Yalin Wang and Yan Jiang have contributed equally to this study.

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Wang, Y., Jiang, Y., Bian, C. et al. Overexpression of Hiwi Inhibits the Cell Growth of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia K562 Cells and Enhances Their Chemosensitivity to Daunomycin. Cell Biochem Biophys 73, 129–135 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-015-0668-7

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