Abstract
Background
Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is the most prevalent gynecological cancer. Transcription factor (TF) regulates a large number of downstream target genes and is a key determinant of all physiological activities, including cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and cell cycle. The transcription factor E2F1 shows prominent roles in EC. BMI1 is a member of Polycomb suppressor Complex 1 (PRC1) and has been shown to be associated with EC invasiveness. It is currently unclear whether E2F1 can participate in the proliferation, migration, and invasion processes of EC cells by regulating BMI1 transcription.
Objective
We investigated whether E2F1 could participate in the proliferation, migration, and invasion processes of EC cells by regulating BMI1 transcription, in order to further clarify the pathogenesis and etiology of EC, and provide reference for identifying potential therapeutic targets and developing effective prevention and treatment strategies for this disease.
Methods
Human endometrial epithelial cells (hEECs) and human EC cell lines were selected. E2F1 expression was assessed by Western blot. E2F1 was silenced in AN3CA or overexpressed in HEC-1 by transfections, or E2F1 was silenced and BMI1 was overexpressed in AN3CA by cotransfection. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were detected by MTT, wound healing, and Transwell assays. The binding sites between E2F1 and BMI1 promoters were predicted through JASPAR website, and the targeted binding was verified by dual-luciferase report and ChIP assays.
Results
E2F1 was up-regulated in human EC cell lines, with its expression highest in AN3CA, and lowest in HEC-1. AN3CA invasion, migration, and proliferation were repressed by E2F1 knockdown, while those of HEC-1 cells were promoted by E2F1 overexpression. E2F1 overexpression increased the activity of wild type BMI1 reporter vector promoter, while this promotion was weakened after mutation of the predicted binding site in the BMI1 promoter. In the precipitated E2F1, BMI1 promoter site level was higher than that of IgG immunoprecipitant. BMI1 silencing suppressed AN3CA cell growth. BMI1 overexpression partially abrogated E2F1 silencing-inhibited EC cell growth.
Conclusion
E2F1 promoted EC cell proliferation, invasion, and migration by promoting the transcription of BMI1.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this article. Further enquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
References
Bhattacharya R, Mustafi SB, Street M, Dey A, Dwivedi SK (2015) Bmi-1: at the crossroads of physiological and pathological biology. Genes Dis 2:225–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gendis.2015.04.001
Buechel M, Dey A, Dwivedi SKD, Crim A, Ding K, Zhang R, Mukherjee P, Moore KN, Cao L, Branstrom A et al (2018) Inhibition of BMI1, a Therapeutic Approach in Endometrial Cancer. Mol Cancer Ther 17:2136–2143. https://doi.org/10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-17-1192
Bushweller JH (2019) Targeting transcription factors in cancer - from undruggable to reality. Nat Rev Cancer 19:611–624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-019-0196-7
Chang Z, Talukdar S, Mullany SA, Winterhoff B (2019) Molecular characterization of endometrial cancer and therapeutic implications. Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol 31:24–30. https://doi.org/10.1097/GCO.0000000000000508
Chen S, Li H, Chen S, Wang B, Zhang K (2022) BMI1 promotes the proliferation and inhibits autophagy of breast cancer cells by activating COPZ1. Clin Transl Oncol 24:2166–2174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-022-02869-w
Chun JN, Cho M, Park S, So I, Jeon JH (2020) The conflicting role of E2F1 in prostate cancer: A matter of cell context or interpretational flexibility? Biochim Biophys Acta Rev Cancer 1873:188336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbcan.2019.188336
Huvila J, Pors J, Thompson EF, Gilks CB (2021) Endometrial carcinoma: molecular subtypes, precursors and the role of pathology in early diagnosis. J Pathol 253:355–365. https://doi.org/10.1002/path.5608
Kim M, Lee S, Park WH, Suh DH, Kim K, Kim YB, No JH (2018) Silencing Bmi1 expression suppresses cancer stemness and enhances chemosensitivity in endometrial cancer cells. Biomed Pharmacother 108:584–589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2018.09.041
Liang YX, Lu JM, Mo RJ, He HC, Xie J, Jiang FN, Lin ZY, Chen YR, Wu YD, Luo HW et al (2016) E2F1 promotes tumor cell invasion and migration through regulating CD147 in prostate cancer. Int J Oncol 48:1650–1658. https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2016.3364
Lin X, Han T, Xia Q, Cui J, Zhuo M, Liang Y, Su W, Wang L, Wang L, Liu Z et al (2021) CHPF promotes gastric cancer tumorigenesis through the activation of E2F1. Cell Death Dis 12:876. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-021-04148-y
Liu Q, Yu M, Zhang T (2022) Construction of oxidative stress-related genes risk model predicts the prognosis of uterine corpus endometrial cancer patients. Cancers (Basel) 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14225572
Mints M, Mushtaq M, Iurchenko N, Kovalevska L, Stip MC, Budnikova D, Andersson S, Polischuk L, Buchynska L, Kashuba E (2016) Mitochondrial ribosomal protein S18-2 is highly expressed in endometrial cancers along with free E2F1. Oncotarget 7:22150–22158. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.7905
Murali R, Soslow RA, Weigelt B (2014) Classification of endometrial carcinoma: more than two types. Lancet Oncol 15:e268–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70591-6
Ni YL, Chien PJ, Hsieh HC, Shen HT, Lee HT, Chen SM, Chang WW (2022) Disulfiram/Copper suppresses Cancer Stem Cell activity in differentiated thyroid Cancer cells by inhibiting BMI1 expression. Int J Mol Sci 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232113276
Nowak K, Kerl K, Fehr D, Kramps C, Gessner C, Killmer K, Samans B, Berwanger B, Christiansen H, Lutz W (2006) BMI1 is a target gene of E2F-1 and is strongly expressed in primary neuroblastomas. Nucleic Acids Res 34:1745–1754. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkl119
Song Y, Chen QT, He QQ (2019) Identification of key transcription factors in endometrial cancer by systems bioinformatics analysis. J Cell Biochem 120:15443–15454. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcb.28811
Song L, Li H, Ma RR, Liu S, Zhang GH, Guo XY, Zhao RN, Wu XJ, Zhang K, Gao P (2022) E2F1-initiated transcription of PRSS22 promotes breast cancer metastasis by cleaving ANXA1 and activating FPR2/ERK signaling pathway. Cell Death Dis 13:982. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-022-05414-3
Sun Y, Xiong X, Wang X (2019) HIF1alpha/miR-199a/ADM feedback loop modulates the proliferation of human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMECs) under hypoxic condition. Cell Cycle 18:2998–3009. https://doi.org/10.1080/15384101.2019.1666611
Trojano G, Olivieri C, Tinelli R, Damiani GR, Pellegrino A, Cicinelli E (2019) Conservative treatment in early stage endometrial cancer: a review. Acta Biomed 90:405–410. https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v90i4.7800
Xiao YY, Lin L, Li YH, Jiang HP, Zhu LT, Deng YR, Lin D, Chen W, Zeng CY, Wang LJ et al (2019) ZEB1 promotes invasion and metastasis of endometrial cancer by interacting with HDGF and inducing its transcription. Am J Cancer Res 9:2314–2330
Xu Q, Ge Q, Zhou Y, Yang B, Yang Q, Jiang S, Jiang R, Ai Z, Zhang Z, Teng Y (2020) MELK promotes endometrial carcinoma progression via activating mTOR signaling pathway. EBioMedicine 51:102609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.102609
Yan Z, Xu T, Lu J, Wu Z, Li X, Xu J, Guo W, Dong Z (2022) E2F1-activated NRSN2 promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression through AKT/mTOR pathway. Pathol Res Pract 236:153963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prp.2022.153963
Yang D, Liu HQ, Yang Z, Fan D, Tang QZ (2021) BMI1 in the heart: novel functions beyond tumorigenesis. EBioMedicine 63:103193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103193
Zhang Y, Wang Z, Ma J, Huo J, Li Y, Wang Y, Chen H, Shan L, Ma X (2020) Bioinformatics Identification of the expression and clinical significance of E2F family in Endometrial Cancer. Front Genet 11:557188. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.557188
Zheng X, Huang M, Xing L, Yang R, Wang X, Jiang R, Zhang L, Chen J (2020) The circRNA circSEPT9 mediated by E2F1 and EIF4A3 facilitates the carcinogenesis and development of triple-negative breast cancer. Mol Cancer 19:73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-020-01183-9
Acknowledgements
Not applicable.
Funding
This work was partially supported by grants from Project of State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University (GZK 1202212).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
YL conceived the ideas. YL, RZ and YW designed the experiments. YL, YW, XS, and YT performed the experiments. YL, JL, YZ and YM analyzed the data. YL wrote the manuscript. YL and RZ supervised the study. All the authors have read and approved the final version for publication.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Ethics approval
This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the any of the authors.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Lu, Y., Wei, Y., Shen, X. et al. Mechanism of E2F1 in the proliferation, migration, and invasion of endometrial carcinoma cells via the regulation of BMI1 transcription. Genes Genom 45, 1423–1431 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-023-01416-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-023-01416-3