Overexpression of SOX18 correlates with accelerated cell growth and poor prognosis in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Transcription factor SOX18 has been proved to play a significant role in carcinogenesis. However, no investigation was performed about the expression of SOX18 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In our work, we found that the PDAC tissues had higher level of SOX18 mRNA and protein expression than matched non-tumor pancreatic tissues and high level of SOX18 protein indicated poor prognosis for PDAC patients. After knockdown of SOX18 gene in PANC-1 and SW1990 cell lines, which showed higher expression level of SOX18 among five PDAC cell lines, the abilities of proliferation, migration and invasion were inhibited and the tumor growth was suppressed in vivo. In addition, the flow cytometry results indicated that down-regulation of SOX18 induced G1/S phase arrest. Furthermore, we found that the expression of cyclin D1, c-myc and MMP-7, three tumorigenesis promoters, was inhabited with downregulation of SOX18. In conclusion, our study reveals that SOX18 plays a significant role in promoting the growth of PDAC, and might serve as a promising target for PDAC therapy. - Highlights: • Overexpression of SOX18 correlates with poor prognosis for pancreatic cancer. • SOX18 promotes pancreatic cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. • SOX18 promotes pancreatic cancer cell migration and invasion. • Knockdown of SOX18 induces G1/S phase arrest. • Knockdown of SOX18 induces decrease of cyclin D1, c-myc and MMP-7.