Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 28, 2023; 29(24): 3770-3792
Published online Jun 28, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i24.3770
Mechanism of ELL-associated factor 2 and vasohibin 1 regulating invasion, migration, and angiogenesis in colorectal cancer
Ming-Liang Feng, Ming-Jun Sun, Bo-Yang Xu, Meng-Yuan Liu, Hui-Jing Zhang, Can Wu
Ming-Liang Feng, Ming-Jun Sun, Bo-Yang Xu, Meng-Yuan Liu, Hui-Jing Zhang, Can Wu, Department of Endoscopy, The First Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Feng ML and Sun MJ designed the research study; Feng ML and Wu C performed the research; Zhang HJ and Liu MY contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Feng ML and Xu BY analyzed the data; Feng ML and Wu C wrote the manuscript; and all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, No. 2023-MS-149.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University (approval No. 2021-68-2).
Informed consent statement: The informed consent was waived from the patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Data can be acquired from the corresponding author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Can Wu, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Attending Doctor, Department of Endoscopy, The First Hospital Affiliated to China Medical University, No. 155 Nanjing North Street, Shenyang 110000, Liaoning Province, China. wucanydyy@163.com
Received: January 18, 2023
Peer-review started: January 18, 2023
First decision: March 26, 2023
Revised: April 8, 2023
Accepted: May 12, 2023
Article in press: May 12, 2023
Published online: June 28, 2023
Processing time: 160 Days and 19 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Endothelial cell-derived vasohibin 1 (VASH1) can regulate tumor angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, and tumor cell-derived VASH1 also has a potential functional role in inhibiting cancer cell proliferation and invasion. Knockdown of VASH1 enhanced transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β)/Smad3 pathway activity and type I/III collagen production. Our previous findings suggest that ELL-associated factor 2 (EAF2) may play a tumor suppressor and protective role in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) by regulating signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3)/TGF-β1 signaling pathway. In this study, we found that EAF2 was down-regulated and VASH1 was up-regulated in advanced CRC tissue compared to normal colorectal tissue by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. And the expression levels of EAF2 and VASH1 were positively correlated in advanced CRC tissue. Furthermore, in vitro cellular mechanism studies suggest that overexpression of EAF2 may inhibit the activity of STAT3/TGF-β1 pathway by up-regulating the expression of VASH1, thereby attenuating the invasion, migration and angiogenesis of CRC cells. This study provides new ideas and theoretical basis for the development of new diagnostic markers for CRC and the exploration of the mechanism of targeted therapy.