PRDM5 promotes the proliferation and invasion of murine melanoma cells through up‐regulating JNK expression

PRDM (PRDI‐BF1 and RIZ domain‐containing) proteins constitute a family of zinc finger proteins and play important roles in multiple cellular processes by acting as epigenetic modifiers. PRDM5 is a recently identified member of the PRDM family and may function as a tumor suppressor in several types of cancer. However, the role of PRDM5 in murine melanoma remains largely unknown. In our study, effect of PRDM5 on murine melanoma cells was determined and results showed that PRDM5 overexpression significantly promoted proliferation, migration, and invasion of murine melanoma B16F10 cells. Consistently, silencing of PRDM5 expression significantly inhibited proliferation, invasion, and migration of B16F10 cells. In vivo study also showed that PRDM5 silencing significantly inhibited the growth and metastasis of melanoma in mice. PRDM5 was then found to increase the expression and activation of JNK in B16F10 cells. JNK silencing significantly reduced PRDM5‐mediated up‐regulation of JNK expression and blocked the PRDM5‐induced proliferation and invasion of B16F10 cells. To further verify the involvement of JNK signaling in PRDM5‐induced progression of B16F10 cells, a specific JNK inhibitor was employed to inhibit the JNK signaling pathway, and results showed that PRDM5‐induced proliferation and invasion of B16F10 cells were abolished. We conclude that PRDM5 promotes the proliferation and invasion of murine melanoma cells through up‐regulating JNK expression and strategies targeting PRDM5 may be promising for the therapy of melanoma.