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Activation of KLF4 expression by small activating RNA promotes migration and invasion in colorectal epithelial cells
Author(s) -
Zhou Qinqin,
Fan Dejun,
Huang Kejun,
Chen Xiuting,
Chen Yufeng,
Mai Qingyun
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
cell biology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.932
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1095-8355
pISSN - 1065-6995
DOI - 10.1002/cbin.10926
Subject(s) - klf4 , biology , transfection , rna , microbiology and biotechnology , cell culture , gene , gene expression , regulation of gene expression , caco 2 , cell , cancer research , transcription factor , genetics , sox2
RNA activation mediated by small double‐stranded RNAs targeting promoter sequence named small activating RNAs (saRNAs) is one of the mechanisms for gene activation. Artificial regulation of gene expression through RNA activation does not affect the alteration of the genomic DNA sequences or exogenous plasmid DNA, therefore it is a relative manageable approach for gene perturbation. KLF4 is a member of zinc‐finger transcription factors and its functions in colorectal cells are still controversial. In order to elucidate the functions of KLF4, we synthesized saRNAs that target the promoter regions of KLF4 and transfected into varied colorectal epithelial cell lines. We found the KLF4 gene expression is specifically increased in the human normal epithelial cell NCM460 and colorectal epithelial cancer cell Caco‐2 and HCT116, but not in other human colorectal epithelial cell lines. In addition, we observed that saRNAs induced overexpression of KLF4 could promote cell migration/invasion in NCM460 and HCT116 cell lines. This effect is mediated partly by inducing EMT and facilitating nuclear translocation of β‐catenin.