Abstract
Background Endometrial adenocarcinoma (EAC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed gynaecological malignancies among female population of the developed countries. DUSP6 is a negative regulator of ERK signaling, which is a molecular switch involved in MAPK signaling during the progress of malignancies. DUSP6 was previously found to inhibit tumorigenesis and EMT-associated properties in several cancers, however, its exact role in EAC remains unclear Methods The level of DUSP6, (E-cad) and (N-cad) in EAC cancerous tissues and respective adjacent non-cancerous tissues were examined by western-blot or immunohistochemistry. The cell growth, invasion and migration abilities were measured in Ishikawa 3H12 endometrial cancer cell lines with overexpressed or knock down DUSP6. Protein levels of EMT-associated markers E-cadherin, N-cadherin and Vimentin were also determined. The impacts of DUSP6 on ERK signaling was assessed by detection of ERK and p-ERK. Results Down-regulation of DUSP6 was observed in EAC compared with the normal controls. The overexpression of DUSP6 significantly attenuated tumor cell growth, invasion, migration abilities and inhibited EMT-associated markers, while knock down of DUSP6 showed opposite trends. Overexpression of DUSP6 also down-regulated p-ERK and the knock down of DUSP6 inversely up-regulated p-ERK level. Conclusions DUSP6 inhibited cell growth, invasion and migration abilities in Ishikawa 3H12 cells as well as attenuating EMT-associated properties. This tumor suppressive effect of DUSP6 in EAC is achieved by inhibiting ERK signaling pathway.