Tex10 promotes stemness and EMT phenotypes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma via the Wnt/β‑catenin pathway

Xiang,Xiaocong; Xiong,Rong; Yu,Chunlei; Deng,Li; Bie,Jun; Xiao,Dongqin; Chen,Zhu; Zhou,Yuchuan; Li,Xiaolei; Liu,Kang; Feng,Gang

doi:10.3892/or.2019.7376

Tex10 promotes stemness and EMT phenotypes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma via the Wnt/β‑catenin pathway

Authors:
- Xiaocong Xiang
- Rong Xiong
- Chunlei Yu
- Li Deng
- Jun Bie
- Dongqin Xiao
- Zhu Chen
- Yuchuan Zhou
- Xiaolei Li
- Kang Liu
- Gang Feng
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Affiliations: Institute of Tissue Engineering and Stem Cells, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan 637000, P.R. China, Institute of Materia Medica, School of Pharmacy, North Sichuan Medical College, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan 637000, P.R. China, Department of Oncology, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan 637000, P.R. China, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan 637000, P.R. China
Published online on: October 16, 2019 https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2019.7376
Pages: 2600-2610
Copyright: © Xiang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

A previous study by our group suggested that testis expressed 10 (Tex10) contributes to tumor progression by promoting stem cell‑like features in hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the relevance of pluripotency factor Tex10 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has remained elusive. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of Tex10 in ESCC. For this purpose, the mRNA and protein expression of Tex10 was detected by reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR, western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. In a loss‑of‑function experiment, EC109 cells were transfected with lentiviral vectors containing Tex10 short hairpin RNA or negative control. Cell proliferation was assessed using a Cell Counting kit‑8, and ﬂow cytometry was used to analyze apoptosis and the cell cycle. Transwell assays were employed to examine the migratory and invasive capacity, and a sphere formation assay was performed to assess the clonogenicity of the EC109 cells. The results revealed that the elevated expression of Tex10 was positively associated with malignancy and with epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT)‑associated mesenchymal markers in human ESCC specimens. The knockdown of Tex10 led to the inhibition of cell proliferation, the induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and decreased the stemness, migratory and invasive capacity of the EC109 cells. Furthermore, the silencing of Tex10 enhanced the sensitivity of the ESCC cells to 5‑fluorouracil. In addition, the present study revealed that Tex10 plays an essential role in regulating EMT via the activation of Wnt/β‑catenin signaling. On the whole, the findings of the present study suggest that the downregulation of Tex10 in ESCC specimens is significantly associated with tumor malignancy, and that Tex10 promotes stem cell‑like features and induces the EMT of ESCC cells through the enhancement of Wnt/β‑catenin signaling.

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