The tumor-promoting function of ECRG4 in papillary thyroid carcinoma and its related mechanism

This study aimed to explore the tumor-promoting function of esophageal cancer-related gene 4 (ECRG4) in the papillary thyroid cancer and its related mechanism. ECRG4 Messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression analysis in papillary thyroid cancer tissues was performed by quantitative real-time PCR (Q-RT-PCR), Western blot, and immunohistochemistry methods. Ten pairs of fresh samples from the papillary thyroid carcinoma patients were analyzed for ECRG4 promoter CpG island methylation status by bisulfite sequencing analysis. We also transfected ECRG4 into papillary thyroid cancer cell lines W3 and K1 with lentivirus and analyzed ECRG4 functions through evaluating the changes of the proliferation activity, the cell cycle, and the cell apoptosis rate of these transformed cells. We found that ECRG4 expression was upregulated in most papillary thyroid cancer samples (70.0 %, 28 out of 40 papillary thyroid cancer samples) on the protein level, and the ECRG4 mRNA level was also enhanced in tumor tissues compared to their matched nontumor tissues. CpG islands around the ECRG4 promoter region were demethylated in the papillary thyroid cancer samples. At the same time, the upregulated expression of ECRG4 in papillary thyroid cancer cell lines W3 and K1 could promote both the proliferation activity and the cell cycle transition from the G1 phase into the G2 but could not affect the cell apoptosis rate. The expression of ECRG4 is frequently upregulated in a papillary thyroid carcinoma through the demethylation mechanism of CpG islands in the gene promoter region, and the ECRG4 has a tumor-promoting function through inducing the cell cycle transition from the G1 phase to the G2 in papillary thyroid carcinoma cells.