Upregulation of FBXW7 Suppresses Renal Cancer Metastasis and Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition.

Background and Objective: FBXW7, known as a general tumor suppressor, is commonly lowly expressed in metastatic malignancies. We aim to investigate the potential influence of FBXW7 overexpression on renal cell carcinoma (RCC) metastasis.

Methods: We employed quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting (WB) to quantify the FBXW7 expression in RCC cell lines. Upregulation of FBXW7 was performed in vitro on RCC cells using the lentivirus covering coding region FBXW7 cDNA sequence, and functional tests were performed to verify FBXW7 overexpression on migration and invasion of RCC cells. Moreover, WB was employed to determine the expressions of MMP-2, MMP-9, and MMP-13, as well as EMT markers in the transfected RCC cells.

Results: FBXW7 was significantly downregulated in RCC cell lines, dominated by 786-O and ACHN, when compared to normal renal cell line HK-2. Moreover, upregulation of FBXW7 in 786-O and ACHN cell lines significantly inhibited cell migration and invasion, as well as EMT. Present study also showed that FBXW7 was involved in the migration and invasion of RCC cells via regulating the expressions of MMP-2, MMP-9, and MMP-13.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that upregulation of FBXW7 inhibits RCC metastasis and EMT. FBXW7 is a potential therapeutic target for RCC patients.