Stromal antigen 2 functions as a tumor suppressor in bladder cancer cells.

Stromal antigen 2 (STAG2) is a subunit of the cohesion complex that plays an important role in the normal segregation of sister chromatids during mitosis or meiosis. However, the effect of STAG2 on the bladder cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion has not yet been fully clarified. In this study, we aimed to characterize STAG2 expression and functional significance in BC and adjacent normal tissue. Notably, STAG2 expression was markedly lower in BC cells and tumor tissues than their normal counterparts at the gene and protein levels. Moreover, clinicopathological analysis showed that the low STAG2 expression is associated with TNM stage. Functional analysis demonstrated that STAG2 overexpression attenuated cell proliferation via G1-phase arrest, invasion, and migration, and promoted apoptosis in BC cell lines, while the opposite was observed with STAG2 knockdown cells. Furthermore, STAG2 overexpression upregulated E-cadherin, caspase-3, and caspase-7 and downregulated vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)2, and MMP9. Collectively, these data suggest that STAG2 acts as a tumor suppressor gene in bladder cancer and may be a potential therapeutic target in BC.