Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Mar 2015)

The overexpression of SOX2 affects the migration of human teratocarcinoma cell line NT2/D1

  • DANIJELA DRAKULIC,
  • JELENA MARJANOVIC VICENTIC,
  • MARIJA SCHWIRTLICH,
  • JELENA TOSIC,
  • ALEKSANDAR KRSTIC,
  • ANDRIJANA KLAJN,
  • MILENA STEVANOVIC

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201520140352
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 87, no. 1
pp. 389 – 404

Abstract

Read online

The altered expression of the SOX2 transcription factor is associated with oncogenic or tumor suppressor functions in human cancers. This factor regulates the migration and invasion of different cancer cells. In this study we investigated the effect of constitutive SOX2 overexpression on the migration and adhesion capacity of embryonal teratocarcinoma NT2/D1 cells derived from a metastasis of a human testicular germ cell tumor. We detected that increased SOX2 expression changed the speed, mode and path of cell migration, but not the adhesion ability of NT2/D1 cells. Additionally, we demonstrated that SOX2 overexpression increased the expression of the tumor suppressor protein p53 and the HDM2 oncogene. Our results contribute to the better understanding of the effect of SOX2 on the behavior of tumor cells originating from a human testicular germ cell tumor. Considering that NT2/D1 cells resemble cancer stem cells in many features, our results could contribute to the elucidation of the role of SOX2 in cancer stem cells behavior and the process of metastasis.

Keywords