KLF4 functions as an oncogene in promoting cancer stem cell-like characteristics in osteosarcoma cells.

In this study, we showed that the expression level of Kruppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) is highly associated with human osteosarcoma cancer stemness. KLF4-overexpressed osteosarcoma cells displayed characteristics of OSCs: increased sphere-forming potential, enhanced levels of stemness-associated genes, great chemoresistance to adriamycin and CDDP, as well as more metastasis potential. Inversely, KLF4 knockdown could reduce colony formation in vitro and inhibit tumorigenesis in vivo, supporting an oncogenic role for KLF4 in osteosarcoma pathogenesis. Furthermore, KLF4 was shown to activate the p38 MAPK signaling pathway to promote cancer stemness. Altogether, our studies uncover an essential role for KLF4 in regulation of OSCs and identify KLF4-p38 MAPK axis as a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma treatment.
PMID: 29930276 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Acta Pharmacologica Sinica - June 21, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Qi XT, Li YL, Zhang YQ, Xu T, Lu B, Fang L, Gao JQ, Yu LS, Zhu DF, Yang B, He QJ, Ying MD Tags: Acta Pharmacol Sin Source Type: research