Open Access

ARTICLE

Knockdown of Angiopoietin-Like Protein 2 Inhibits Proliferation and Invasion in Glioma Cells via Suppressing the ERK/MAPK Signaling Pathway

Li-Kun Yang^*1, Jie Zhu^*1, Yu-Hua Chen^†1, Dong-Liang Wang^‡, Hua Li^§, Liang-Jun Zhang^§, Jing-Ru Zhou^‡, Wei Liu^†

*Department of Neurosurgery, 101th Hospital of PLA, Rescue Center of Craniocerebral Injuries of PLA, Wuxi, P.R. China
†Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Shaanxi Fourth People’s Hospital, Xi’an, P.R. China
‡Department of Neurosurgery, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, P.R. China
§Department of Neurosurgery, Shaanxi Fourth People’s Hospital, Xi’an, P.R. China
1 These authors provided equal contribution to this work.

Oncology Research 2017, 25(8), 1349-1355.

Abstract

Angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2), a member of the glycoprotein family, is mainly secreted by adipose tissues under normal conditions. Recently, ANGPTL2 has been found to be upregulated in some types of cancers and is considered to be a tumor promoter. However, the functional significance of ANGPTL2 in glioma has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we investigated the specific role of ANGPTL2 in glioma. The results showed that ANGPTL2 was highly expressed in glioma tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of ANGPTL2 reduced the proliferative and invasive abilities of glioma cells. Moreover, the tumorigenesis assay showed that ANGPTL2 knockdown inhibited glioma tumor growth in vivo. We also found that ANGPTL2 knockdown decreased the protein levels of p-ERK1/2 in glioma cells and thus blocked the activity of the ERK/MAPK signaling pathway. Taken together, our study provided the first evidence that ANGPTL2 played an oncogenic role in glioma development and might be considered as a new therapeutic target for glioma treatment.

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