Inhibiting cell migration and cell invasion by silencing the transcription factor ETS-1 in human bladder cancer

// Li Liu 1, 2, 4, * , Yuchen Liu 1, * , Xintao Zhang 1, * , Mingwei Chen 1 , Hanwei Wu 1 , Muqi Lin 1 , Yonghao Zhan 1, 4 , Chengle Zhuang 1, 4 , Junhao Lin 1, 4 , Jianfa Li 1, 4 , Wen Xu 1 , Xing Fu 1 , Qiaoxia Zhang 1 , Xiaojuan Sun 1 , Guoping Zhao 1, 5 , Weiren Huang 1, 3 1 Key Laboratory of Medical Reprogramming Technology, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China 2 Urology Department, Qingyuan People's Hospital, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Qingyuan, China 3 Department of Urology, Peking University First Hospital, Institute of Urology, Peking University, National Urological Cancer Center, Beijing, China 4 Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China 5 Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory of Health and Disease Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Shanghai, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Weiren Huang, email: pony8980@163.com Keywords: bladder cancer, ETS-1, oncogene, cell migration, cell invasion Received: August 21, 2015 Accepted: January 20, 2016 Published: February 04, 2016 ABSTRACT As one of the members of the ETS gene family, the transcription factor v-ets avian erythroblastosis virus E26 oncogene homolog 1 (ETS-1) plays key role in the regulation of physiological processes in normal cells and tumors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the transcription factor ETS-1 and malignant phenotypes of bladder cancer. We demonstrated that ETS-1 was up-regulated in human bladder cancer tissue compared to paired normal bladder tissue. In order to evaluate the functional role of ETS-1 in human bladder cancer, vectors expressing ETS-1 shRNA and ETS-1 protein were constructed in vitro and transfected into the human bladder cancer T24 and 5637 cells. Our results showed that the transcription factor ETS-1 could promote cell migration and cell invasion in human bladder cancer, without affecting cell proliferation and apoptosis. In conclusion, ETS-1 plays oncogenic roles through inducing cell migration and invasion in human bladder cancer, and it can be used as a therapeutic target for treating human bladder cancer.