MCM2 promotes the stemness of endometrial cancer cells via the Akt/β-catenin pathway.

Abstract

Minichromosome maintenance complex component 2 (MCM2) is a member of the MCM family and is involved in various cancers. However, the role of MCM2 in endometrial cancer (EC) remains unclear. In this study, we aim to determine the biological function of MCM2 in EC cells and identify the potential underlying mechanisms. MCM2 expression and prognostic significance were analyzed in TCGA-UCEC datasets. Combining bioinformatics analyses and experiments, stemness-related molecules and phenotypes were examined to evaluate the impact of MCM2 on stemness in EC cells. The major findings of these analyses are as follows: 1) MCM2 is expressed at higher levels in EC tissues than in normal endometrial tissues. High expression of MCM2 is related to the characteristics of poorly differentiated EC. High MCM2 expression is correlated with poor overall survival in EC patients; 2) MCM2 knockdown was found to decrease sphere formation ability, downregulate the expression of stemness-related molecules, and reduce the proportion of CD133+ cells, while MCM2 overexpression elicited the opposite effect in EC cells; 3) MCM2-mediated stemness features are dependent on the activation of Akt/β-catenin signaling pathways; and 4) MCM2 knockdown increases cisplatin sensitivity in EC cells. MCM2 regulates stemness by regulating the Akt/β-catenin signaling pathway in EC cells.