High expression of PIM2 induces HSC proliferation in myelodysplastic syndromes via the IDH1/HIF1-α signaling pathway

PIM2 proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (PIM2) is a serine/threonine protein kinase that is upregulated in different types of cancer and serves essential roles in the regulation of signal transduction cascades, which promote cell survival and cell proliferation. The present study demonstrated that PIM2 was highly expressed in CD34(+) cells derived from the bone marrow of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)/acute myeloid leukemia. The mRNA expression level of PIM2 was quantified in MDS cell lines and mRNA expression was significantly decreased compared with that in KG-1 cells. In vitro, downregulation of PIM2 by short interfering RNA (siRNA) inhibited cell proliferation and delayed G(0)/G(1) cell cycle progression in the MDS cell line SKM-1. Western blotting revealed that cyclin dependent kinase 2 was markedly downregulated and cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1A was markedly upregulated following transfection with PIM2 siRNA. Cell Counting Kit-8 analysis demonstrated that cell proliferation of si-PIM2-transfected cells was significantly decreased compared with control cells. Reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting revealed that PIM2 expression was negatively correlated with isocitrate dehydrogenase [NADP(+)]1 cytosolic (IDH1) and positively correlated with hypoxia inducible factor 1 subunit α (HIF1A) in CD34(+) MDS cells. Collectively, these results suggested that the expression of PIM2 induced increased expression of HIF1A by decreasing the expression of IDH1, resulting in increased CD34(+) cell proliferation. Therefore, PIM2 may be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of MDS and AML or a target for novel therapeutic agents.