Yongjun Liu1,
Xuefeng Zhu1,
Xiaoen You1,
Runfang Kang2
1Department of Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery Burn Wound Repair, Lishui City People's Hospital;
2Department of Dermatology, Lishui Second People's Hospital, Lishui, Zhejiang Province 323000, China.
For correspondence:- Runfang Kang
Email: kangrunfang10317@163.com Tel:+865782298812
Accepted: 30 May 2021
Published: 30 June 2021
Citation:
Liu Y, Zhu X, You X, Kang R.
SPAG9 promotes the migration and invasion of melanoma cells by regulating the MAPK pathway. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(6):1125-1130
doi:
10.4314/tjpr.v20i6.4
© 2021 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
Purpose: To determine the regulatory role of sperm-associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) in melanoma cell growth.
Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis was performed to investigate SPAG9 expression in melanoma tissues. Western blot was used to evaluate SPAG9 expression in melanoma tissues and cells. Melanoma cells were transfected with an siRNA targeting SPAG9 or a SPAG9 overexpression vector. Cell migration and invasion were examined by wound healing and transwell assays. The effects of SPAG9 on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in melanoma cells were assessed by western blot.
Results: SPAG9 expression was enhanced in melanoma tissues and cells. SiRNA-mediated silencing of SPAG9 repressed melanoma cell migration and invasion, and SPAG9 overexpression contributed to melanoma cell metastasis. In melanoma cells transfected with siRNA-SPAG9, E-cadherin expression decreased while vimentin and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2/9 expression increased. However, ectopic expression of SPAG9 reversed this expression of E-cadherin, vimentin, and MMP-2/9. Silencing of SPAG9 decreased the phosphorylation of MAPKs, including p-p38, p-ERK and p-JNK, in melanoma cells. SPAG9 overexpression upregulated phosphorylation of MAPKs.
Conclusion: SPAG9 promotes the migration and invasion of melanoma cells by activating the MAPK pathway.
Keywords: SPAG9, Cell migration, Cell invasion, Melanoma, MAPKs, E-cadherin, Vimentin, Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)