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Open Access Overexpression of Forkhead Box L1 (FOXL1) Inhibits the Proliferation and Invasion of Breast Cancer Cells

Forkhead box L1 (FOXL1) is a member of the Forkhead box (FOX) superfamily and was reported to be dysregulated in various types of cancers. However, its expression pattern and underlying cellular function in breast cancer remain largely unexplored. Thus, the aim of this study was to detect FOXL1 expression in breast cancer and to analyze its role in the progression of breast cancer. Our results demonstrated that FOXL1 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels was downregulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Ectopic FOXL1 suppressed breast cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. Furthermore, overexpression of FOXL1 significantly attenuated tumor growth in breast xenograft models in vivo. Finally, overexpression of FOXL1 significantly downregulated the protein expression levels of β-catenin, c-Myc, and cyclin D1 in MDA-MB-231 cells. Taken together, the present study demonstrated that FOXL1 inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of breast cancer in vitro and breast tumor growth in vivo through deactivating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Thus, these findings suggest that FOXL1 may be a potential novel target for breast cancer therapy.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Forkhead box L1 (FOXL1); Invasion; Proliferation

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Pathology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, P.R. China 2: Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, P.R. China 3: Collaborative Innovation Center of Molecular Diagnosis and Laboratory Medicine in Henan Province, School of Laboratory Medicine, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, P.R. China

Publication date: 05 July 2017

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  • Formerly: Oncology Research Incorporating Anti-Cancer Drug Design
    Oncology Research Featuring Preclinical and Clincal Cancer Therapeutics publishes research of the highest quality that contributes to an understanding of cancer in areas of molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, biophysics, genetics, biology, endocrinology, and immunology, as well as studies on the mechanism of action of carcinogens and therapeutic agents, reports dealing with cancer prevention and epidemiology, and clinical trials delineating effective new therapeutic regimens.

    From Volume 23, Oncology Research Featuring Preclinical and Clinical Cancer Therapeutics is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license.

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