SOX11-induced decrease in vimentin and an increase in prostate cancer cell migration attributed to cofilin activity.

SOX11 is a transcription factor in the SOX family of genes that regulate multiple cellular events by influencing the expression of key genes in developmental, physiological, and tumorigenic cells. To elucidate the role of SOX11 in prostate cancer cells, PC-3 prostate cancer cells were cloned (S6 and S9 cells) to highly express SOX11. We demonstrated that both S6 and S9 lose vimentin expression, acquiring epithelial marker proteins, which indicates the Epithelial state phenotype. S6 and S9 cells have cancer-promoting characteristics that include higher migratory properties compared with control cells. The mechanisms that are responsible for the enhanced migration are cofilin activity and keratin 18 expression. TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) dataset analysis revealed that metastatic prostate cancer tumors tend to have more SOX11 gene amplification compared with primary tumors. These results suggest the tumor promotive role and epithelial protein induction of SOX11 in prostate cancer cell.