Attenuation of Leukemia/Lymphoma-Related Factor Protein Expression Inhibits Glioma Cell Proliferation and Invasion

Overexpression of leukemia/lymphoma-related factor (LRF), which is an erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor protein, occurs in different cancers, including glioma. LRF is also reported to have an oncogenic activity in various human cancers. This study investigated the effect of LRF knockdown on the regulation of glioma growth. LRF short hairpin RNA (shRNA) suppressed the expression of LRF protein in a glioma cell line (GL261-EGFP) compared to the negative control vector-transfected glioma cells. LRF knockdown also reduced glioma cell viability and enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptosis in glioma cells. AKT activation and the expression of various cell cycle-related genes were inhibited following LRF knockdown. The effect on growth and migration is related to dose response results of AKT and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) inhibitors. These data demonstrate that LRF may play a role in glioma progression, suggesting that inhibition of LRF expression using LRF shRNA should be further evaluated as a novel target for the control of glioma.