Survivin Regulates Bad Gene Expression by Binding to Its Promoter and Modulates Cell Cycle and Apoptosis in Esophageal Carcinoma Cell

Esophageal cancer (EC) is the eighth most prevalent cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. As an antiapoptotic and a proapoptotic protein, respectively, survivin and Bad play an important role in carcinogenesis of the most human cancers including EC. However, the regulatory relationships between them remain unclear. We sought to investigate the effects of survivin knockdown and overexpression on the expression of Bad gene, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis of esophageal carcinoma cell. The mRNA expression levels of survivin and Bad were determined in EC tissue samples. The knockdown and overexpression experiments were performed in ECA109 and KYSE450 cells via transfection with survivin overexpression and shRNA plasmids. A Bad overexpression experiment was conducted to confirm the biological effect on knockdown of survivin via modulating Bad expression. RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis were used to detect mRNA and protein expression, respectively. Cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry. The chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was conducted to determine the binding sites of survivin on the promoter of Bad gene. By analyzing the mRNA expression of survivin and Bad in 40 ESCC patient specimens, we found that the positive expression rate of survivin in tumor tissues (88%, 35/40) was remarkably high, compared with the distal nontumor tissues (48%, 19/40, p < 0.01). On the other hand, the positive expression rate of Bad in tumor tissues (70%, 28/40) was remarkably low, compared with the distal nontumor tissues (95%, 38/40, p < 0.01). Overexpression of survivin decreases Bad mRNA and protein expression and promotes transformation of cell cycle to S phase. Conversely, knockdown of survivin increases Bad mRNA and protein expression and induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Bad overexpression inducing apoptosis of esophageal carcinoma cell shows the similar apoptotic effect with survivin knockdown. ChIP assays indicate that survivin directly binds to the Bad promoter region, diminishing the transcriptional activity of Bad. In conclusion, the result suggested that survivin regulates Bad gene expression by binding to its promoter and modulates cell cycle and apoptosis in esophageal carcinoma cell.