ADAMTS12 acts as a cancer promoter in colorectal cancer via activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in vitro

Background: ADAMTS12, a member of the ADAMTS family, is reported to be associated with the clinic outcome of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. However, the functions and precise mechanism in CRC progression have yet to be fully understood. Methods: By analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, we examined the mRNA level of ADAMTS12 and assessed the prognostic value of ADAMTS12 in CRC patients using a tissue microarray containing 41 CRC patient samples. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, and transwell assays were used to quantify the impact of ADAMTS12 on cell proliferation and migration in ADAMTS12-overexpressing and ADAMTS12-deficient cell lines. The signaling pathways that ADAMTS12 mediated were identified by dual-luciferase reporter assays, and confirmed by western blotting and quantitative teal-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: The ADAMTS12 mRNA level was upregulated in CRC tissues, and CRC patients with a high level of ADAMTS12 showed worse prognosis when compared with the patients with a low level of ADAMTS12. In vitro functional assays demonstrated that overexpression of ADAMTS12 significantly boosted cell proliferation and migration while ADAMTS12 deficiency remarkably impaired both tumor cell behaviors. Mechanical studies further verified that ADAMTS12 overexpression enhanced the transcriptional activity of beta-catenin in the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway. In the ADAMTS12-deficient context, the downstream gene expression of myc and cyclin D1 was significantly reduced compared with that in wild-type cancer cells. Conclusions: ADAMTS12 fulfills the tumor-promotor role by activating Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway in colon cells and may represent a new option in CRC target treatment.