Trefoil factor 3 contributes to the malignancy of glioma via regulating HIF-1α

// Shuo Diao 1 , Qianqian Zheng 2 , Jian Gao 3 , Yiqun Yao 1 , Siyang Ren 1 , Yongjian Liu 4 and Yinghui Xu 1 1 Department of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, People’s Republic of China 2 Department of Pathophysiology, Basic Medical College, China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China 3 Center of Laboratory Technology and Experimental Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China 4 Department of Interventional Therapy, First Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, People’s Republic of China Correspondence to: Yinghui Xu, email: xuyh_dl@126.com Keywords: TFF3, glioblastoma, HIF-1α, proliferation, apoptosis Received: March 14, 2017     Accepted: June 27, 2017     Published: August 07, 2017 ABSTRACT Trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) plays significant roles in several solid tumors. However, the expression pattern and function of TFF3 in glioblastoma (GBM) have not been reported. Here, we report that expression level of TFF3 significantly elevated in glioma and correlated with the prognosis of glioma patients. Then we found TFF3 promotes proliferation, invasion, and migration and inhibits apoptosis of glioma cells in vitro , and delayed tumor progression in subcutaneous xenograft nude mice, and prolonged the median survival time in orthotopic xenograft mice. Moreover, knockdown of TFF3 reduced the expression of HIF-1α through a hypoxia-independent manner. These findings suggest that targeting TFF3 may offer a novel strategy for therapeutic intervention of malignant gliomas.