Overexpression of Rab11-FIP2 in colorectal cancer cells promotes tumor migration and angiogenesis through increasing secretion of PAI-1

BACKGROUND: Rab11 family-interacting protein 2 (Rab11-FIP2) can interact with MYO5B and plays an important role in regulating plasma membrane recycling. However, little is known about the clinical significance of DUSP2 in colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: In this study, we investigated Rab11-FIP2 expression by immunohistochemistry in 125 patients with colorectal cancer. Conditioned media containing all secreted factors was harvested. Chemokine secretion and expression were analyzed by Chemi-array. RESULTS: We found that the expression level of Rab11-FIP2 was significantly increased in colorectal cancer tissues and high expression of Rab11-FIP2 was closely correlated with nodal metastasis in colorectal cancer patients. Rab11-FIP2 overexpression promoted colorectal cancer metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we demonstrated that Rab11-FIP2 overexpression may contribute to increased secretion of PAI-1 in human colorectal cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal a novel mechanism underlying the role of Rab11-FIP2 in colorectal cancer dissemination, suggesting that targeting Rab11-FIP2 might be a promising therapeutic strategy for CRC. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-018-0532-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.