By recruiting HDAC1, MORC2 suppresses p21Waf1/Cip1 in gastric cancer

// Qing Zhang 1 , Yanyan Song 1 , Wei Chen 1 , Xiaohui Wang 1 , Zhifeng Miao 2 , Liu Cao 1 , Feng Li 1 , Guiling Wang 1 1 Department of Cell Biology, Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Ministry of Public Health, and Key Laboratory of Medical Cell Biology, Ministry of Education, China Medical University, Shenyang, China 2 Department of Surgical Oncology and General Surgery, First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China Correspondence to: Guiling Wang, e-mail: wanggl@mail.cmu.edu.cn Feng Li, e-mail: fli@mail.cmu.edu.cn Keywords: MORC2, p21, HDAC1, cell proliferation, gastric cancer Received: January 21, 2015      Accepted: April 25, 2015      Published: May 08, 2015 ABSTRACT Microrchidia (MORC) family CW-type zinc-finger 2 (MORC2) regulates chromatin remodeling during the DNA-damage response, represses gene transcription, promotes lipogenesis. Here, we found that MORC2 down-regulated p21 by recruiting HDAC1 to the p21 promoter, in a p53-independent manner. MORC2-mediated down-regulation of p21 in turn promoted cell cycle progression in gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, MORC2 expression correlated negatively with p21 expression in gastric tumors in patients. We suggest that MORC2 may be a potential therapeutic target in cancer.