Acidic nuclear phosphoprotein 32 family member E (ANP32E) is a histone chaperone that removes H2A.Z from chromatin. ANP32E is implicated in numerous cellular processes, including cell proliferation, apoptosis and cell differentiation. Increasing evidence suggests that dysregulation of ANP32E expression is strongly associated with carcinogenesis. However, the relationship between ANP32E in the development of gastric cancer (GC) is unknown. The present study aimed to explore the potential role of ANP32E in the development of GC using gain‑of‑function, loss‑of‑function, CCK‑8, colony formation, apoptosis, reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR, immunoblotting and luciferase reporter assay. The results of the present study demonstrated that ANP32E expression levels were significantly increased in GC tissues. ANP32E knockdown markedly inhibited GC cell proliferation and colony formation and significantly induced GC cell apoptosis, whereas overexpression of ANP32E significantly induced GC cell malignancy. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that there was a positive association between ANP32E and NUF2 component of NDC80 kinetochore complex (NUF2) expression levels. By assessing NUF2 expression levels, it was demonstrated that ANP32E promoted tumor cell proliferation and inhibited cell apoptosis by increasing NUF2 expression levels in GC cell lines. In conclusion, the present study indicated that ANP32E may function as an efficient oncogene, which promotes tumorigenesis of GC cells by inducing NUF2 expression.
Keywords: Cancer progression; NUF2 component of NDC80 kinetochore complex; acidic nuclear phosphoprotein 32 family member E; apoptosis; cell cycle; gastric cancer.