TMPRSS4 correlates with colorectal cancer pathological stage and regulates cell proliferation and self-renewal ability.

Transmembrane protease/serine 4 (TMPRSS4) is a member of the type II transmembrane serine protease (TTSP) family and it was found highly expressed in several cancers. This study aims to evaluate the expression of TMPRSS4 in colorectal cancer (CRC) and investigate its role in proliferation and self-renewal of colon cancer cells. qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression level of TMRPSS4 in CRC samples respectively. Loss of function assay was conducted with RNAi technique. Cell proliferation was done with WST-8 assay; cell apoptosis and cell cycle analysis were performed with flow cytometry; invasion and migration were done with transwell assay. Plate and soft agarose clonogenic assays were used to detect clone-formation ability. CD44 and CD133 expressions were analyzed by flow cytometry and western blot. We found that TMPRSS4 was highly expressed in CRC tissues both at mRNA and protein level and correlated with pathological stage. Knockdown of TMPRSS4 in highly expressed colon cancer cell line HCT116 resulted in inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of cell apoptosis and suppression of invasion and migration; moreover, knockdown of TMPRSS4 suppressed the in vitro clone-formation ability of HCT116 and reduced the expressions of CD44 and CD133. The findings in this research showed that TMPRSS4 was associated with CRC stage and regulated the proliferation and self-renewal ability of colon cancer cells; TMRPSS4 was involved in the development and progression of CRC.