Upregulation of ESPL1 is associated with poor prognostic outcomes in endometrial cancer

Abstract

Background

Extra spindle pole bodies-like 1 (ESPL1) is known to play a crucial role in the segregation of sister chromatids during mitosis. Overexpression of ESPL1 is considered to have oncogenic effects in various human cancers. However, the specific biological function of ESPL1 in endometrial cancer (EC) remains unclear.

Methods

The TCGA and GEO databases were utilized to assess the expression of ESPL1 in EC. Immunohistochemistry was utilized to detect separase expression in EC samples. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic significance of ESPL1 in EC. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was employed to explore the potential signaling pathway of ESPL1 in EC. Cell proliferation and colony formation ability were analyzed using CCK-8 and colony formation assay.

Results

Our analysis revealed that ESPL1 is significantly upregulated in EC, and its overexpression is associated with advanced clinical characteristics and unfavourable prognostic outcomes. Suppression of ESPL1 attenuated proliferation of EC cell line.

Conclusion

The upregulation of ESPL1 is associated with advanced disease and poor prognosis in EC patients. These findings suggest that ESPL1 has the potential to serve as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in EC, highlighting its significance in the management of EC patients.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

• The expression of ESPL1 was higher in EC tissue than normal endometrial tissue.

• ESPL1 could be a potential prognostic marker for EC.

Keywords:

• ESPL1
• separase
• biomarker
• endometrial cancer
• cell proliferation

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Xuemei Zhang (Liuzhou People’s Hospital, China) for her statistical assistance.

Authors’ contributions

Y. Y., Y. S., J. Z., Y. Z. and X. Z. designed the experiments. Y. Y., Y. S. acquired and analysed the data. Y. Y., J. Z. draft the article. A.M, S. C., J. L., X.Y. and Y. L. reviewed the draft thoroughly. Y. Z. and X. Z provided insightful comments and editing and approved the final version. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The article has been supported by middle-aged and young teachers’ scientific basic ability promotion project of Guangxi (No. 2020KY12017), the research project of Hunan Health Committee (No. 202105012226) and Guilin scientific research and technology development plan (No. 2020011204-10).