We aimed to characterize the expression pattern of UBE2C in rectal carcinoma and elucidate its fundamental involvement in rectal carcinoma biology. The relative expression of UBE2C in rectal carcinoma was determined by immunoblotting and QPCR. The cell viability was measured using CCK-8 assay. The anchorage-independent growth was evaluated with soft agar assay. Cell apoptosis was detected by Annexin V-PI staining. Invasion capacity was determined by transwell chamber. Tumor growth was monitored in xenograft mice model. We demonstrated that UBE2C was aberrantly up-regulated in rectal carcinoma. SiRNA-mediated knockdown of UBE2C significantly inhibited cell viability, proliferation, colony formation, invasion and induced apoptosis in vitro. Moreover, tumor growth in xenograft mice was markedly suppressed upon UBE2C silencing. Furthermore, we have identified that miR-381 was involved in regulation of UBE2C in rectal carcinoma. Here we demonstrated that UBE2C was over-expressed in rectal carcinoma, which was subjected to miR-381 modulation and in turn promoted cell proliferation, invasion and inhibited cell apoptosis.
Keywords: UBE2C; apoptosis; invasion; miR-381; proliferation; rectal carcinoma; xenograft mice model.