SMC4 Promotes Proliferation and Migration of Colon Adenocarcinoma Cells

Background: Structural maintenance of chromosomes 4 (SMC4) is one of the SMC family members, which was located in 3q25.33 and involved in chromosome enrichment and separation, DNA recombination and repair, has been implicated in the promotion of cancers proliferation and metastasis. However, the possible role of SMC4 in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) metastasis and EMT progression remained unclear. Methods: The expression of SMC4 in COAD tissues was screened by bioinformatics analysis and immunohistochemical assay. si-RNA-mediated transfection was performed in COAD cells. The proliferation viability was measured using MTT, colony formation and EdU assays. SMC4-induced autophagy occurred was explored by AO staining, autophagy-related markers were detected by Western blots and Immunofluorescence staining. The migration ability was determined using wound healing and Transwell assay. The expression of EMT markers and transcriptional factors were detected using western blot assays.Results: We found that SMC4 was upregulated in COAD tissues, and its overexpression was linked with COAD patients’ aggressive tumor characteristics. Furthermore, prognostic analysis shown that COAD patients with high SMC4 expression had a remarkably shorter survival and acted as an important factor for predicting poor overall survival in GC patients. Moreover, SMC4 depletion inhibited COAD cells proliferation and migration through epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) progression. Taken together, we proposed that SMC4 involved in COAD progression and might be a valid prognostic marker.Conclusions: We proposed that SMC4 involved in COAD progression and might be a valid prognostic marker.