HOXB7 promotes proliferation and metastasis of glioma by regulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression level of HOXB7 in gliomas and its effect on the proliferation and metastasis of gliomas, as well as its regulatory mechanism of promoting the malignant progression of glioma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, 32 pairs of glioma tumor tissue specimens and adjacent ones were collected and the HOXB7 expression levels in these tissues were detected using quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR), and the interplay between HOXB7 level and clinical parameters of glioma was analyzed. QRT-PCR was used to further verify the expression of HOXB7 in glioma cell lines. The sh-HOXB7 knockdown model was constructed in glioma cell lines, and the influence of HOXB7 on the biological function of glioma cells was examined by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assay. Meanwhile, Western blot was applied to explore whether HOXB7 can promote the progression of glioma through the Wnt/ β-catenin pathway. RESULTS: QRT-PCR results showed that the level of HOXB7 in glioma tumor tissue specimens was conspicuously higher than that in the adjacent normal ones. The occurrence of lymph node or distant metastasis was higher and the prognosis was worse in patients with higher HOXB7 expression. In addition, compared with the sh-NC group, cell proliferation, invasiveness and migration ability of the sh-HOXB7 group decreased conspicuously. Subsequently, the Western blot result revealed that the expression of key proteins in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway was conspicuously reduced in the sh-HOXB7 group, thereby promoting the malignant progression of glioma. CONCLUSIONS: HOXB7 may promote the invasiveness and migration of glioma cells via regulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and is conspicuously associated with lymph node or distant metastasis and poor prognosis.