Up-regulation of Hsp27 by ERα/Sp1 facilitates proliferation and confers resistance to apoptosis in human papillary thyroid cancer cells

• Hsp27 can be up-regulated by 17β-estradiol in papillary thyroid cancer cells.
• The up-regulation of Hsp27 by 17β-estradiol is mediated by ERα/Sp1.
• ERβ has repressive effect on the ERα/Sp1-mediated up-regulation of Hsp27.
• Up-regulation of Hsp27 by ERα/Sp1 confers resistance to apoptosis.

17β-estradiol (E2) has been suggested to play a role in the development and progression of papillary thyroid cancer. Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is a member of the Hsp family that is responsible for cell survival under stressful conditions. Previous studies have shown that the 5′-promoter region of Hsp27 gene contains a specificity protein-1 (Spl) and estrogen response element half-site (ERE-half), which contributes to Hsp27 induction by E2 in breast cancer cells. However, it is unclear whether Hsp27 can be up-regulated by E2 and which estrogen receptor (ER) isoform and tethered transcription factor are involved in this regulation in papillary thyroid cancer cells. In the present study, we demonstrated that Hsp27 can be effectively up-regulated by E2 at mRNA and protein levels in human K1 and BCPAP papillary thyroid cancer cells which have more than two times higher level of ERα than that of ERβ. The up-regulation of Hsp27 by E2 is mediated by ERα/Sp1 and ERβ has repressive effect on this ERα/Sp1-mediated up-regulation of Hsp27. Moreover, we showed that the up-regulation of Hsp27 by ERα/Sp1 facilitates proliferation and confers resistance to apoptosis through interaction with procaspase-3. Targeting this pathway may be a potential strategy for therapy of papillary thyroid cancer.