TMPRSS4 correlates with colorectal cancer pathological stage and regulates cell proliferation and self-renewal ability

Abstract

Transmembrane protease/serine 4 (TMPRSS 4) is a member of the type II transmembrane serine protease (TTSP) family and it was found highly expressed in several cancers. This study aims to evaluate the expression of TMPRSS 4 in colorectal cancer (CRC) and investigate its role in proliferation and self-renewal of colon cancer cells. qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression level of TMRPSS 4 in CRC samples respectively. Loss of function assay was conducted with RNAi technique. Cell proliferation was done with WST-8 assay; cell apoptosis and cell cycle analysis were performed with flow cytometry; invasion and migration were done with transwell assay. Plate and soft agarose clonogenic assays were used to detect clone-formation ability. CD44 and CD133 expressions were analyzed by flow cytometry and western blot. We found that TMPRSS 4 was highly expressed in CRC tissues both at mRNA and protein level and correlated with pathological stage. Knockdown of TMPRSS 4 in highly expressed colon cancer cell line HC T116 resulted in inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of cell apoptosis and suppression of invasion and migration; moreover, knockdown of TMPRSS 4 suppressed the in vitro clone-formation ability of HC T116 and reduced the expressions of CD44 and CD133. The findings in this research showed that TMPRSS 4 was associated with CRC stage and regulated the proliferation and self-renewal ability of colon cancer cells; TMRPSS 4 was involved in the development and progression of CRC. © 2014 Landes Bioscience.