Lentivirus-Mediated Knockdown of CTHRC1 Inhibits Osteosarcoma Cell Proliferation and Migration

Collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (CTHRC1), a secreted protein, is transiently expressed in the arterial wall in response to injury, indicating that it may contribute to vascular remodeling by limiting collagen matrix deposition and promoting cell migration. Recent studies showed that it is aberrantly upregulated in most human solid tumors, yet its role in osteosarcoma remains unclear. In this study, the authors investigated the role of CTHRC1 in human osteosarcoma tumorigenesis. The authors used lentivirus-mediated short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against CTHRC1 to limit its endogenous expression in U2OS and SW1353 cells. Interestingly, they found that depletion of CTHRC1 significantly inhibited cell proliferation and colony formation in U2OS and SW1353 cells. Flow cytometry assay showed that knockdown of CTHRC1 increased the cell percentage of G0/G1 phase, resulting in cell cycle arrest in U2OS cells. Moreover, CTHRC1 silencing induced the cell cycle arrest by a decrease in the cell percentage in G0/G1 phase and increased in G2/M phase in SW1353 cells. In addition, crystal violet staining suggested CTHRC1 silencing inhibited migration of U2OS and SW1353 cells. These results demonstrated that CTHRC1 might play an important role in osteosarcoma progression.