The Increased Expression of Estrogen-Related Receptor α Correlates with Wnt5a and Poor Prognosis in Patients with Glioma

Malignant glioma is an often fatal type of cancer. Elevated expression of the orphan nuclear receptor estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRα) is an unfavorable factor for malignant progression and poor prognosis in several cancers, although mechanism by which this receptor affects the pathophysiology of cancers remains obscure. However, few studies have been conducted in regard to the role of ERRα in glioma. In current study, we found elevated expression of ERRα was observed in 107 glioma cases by means of immunohistochemestry. Clinically, high expression of ERRα was associated with later stages of disease progression and clinical outcome of patients with glioma. ERRα had the abilities to promote cell proliferation and migration in glioma cell lines. Moreover, in a xenograft model, we also found that silencing ERRα had an inhibitory effect on the growth of glioma. Further investigation confirmed that ERRα was involved in the carcinogenesis of glioma via the regulation of Wnt5a signal pathway in vitro and in vivo. Our study was first to show the overexpression of ERRα in glioma tissues and a direct correlation between ERRα expression and clinical prognosis of glioma. Together, these data reveal that ERRα has prognostic significance in glioma and targeting ERRα may provide reliable therapeutic strategy for the treatment for human glioma.