BACH1 promotes the progression of human colorectal cancer through BACH1/CXCR4 pathway

The present study was to investigate clinical significance, biological functions and underlying mechanisms of BTB Domain and CNC Homolog 1(BACH1) deregulation in human colorectal cancer (CRC). The result showed that BACH1 upregulation was significantly associated with enhanced tumor invasion (P = 0.014) and gender (P = 0.028) of CRC patients. Kaplan-Meier method results showed that the overall survival of CRC patients with high BACH1 mRNA expression was markedly shorter than those with low expression (P = 0.015), and multivariate analyzes results showed that BACH1 was an independent prognostic predictor for CRC patients (P = 0.049). In vitro studies revealed that BACH1 efficiently promoted invasion and migration of CRC cell line. In vitro studies proved that the HCT116 cell stably expressing BACH1 formed significantly larger tumor nodules and remarkably accelerated tumor xenografts growth. In addition, Immunohistochemical scores of CD31 and Vimentin were significantly higher than those of the control group. Finally, correlation analysis indicated that BACH1 expression was positively correlated with C-X-C Motif Chemokine Receptor 4(CXCR4) in tumor tissues and cell lines. Together, BACH1 serves as an oncogene to promote CRC progression and an independent prognostic factor for survival and metastasis. BACH1 may inhibit the progression of CRC through BACH1/CXCR4 pathway.