EDAG-1 promotes the proliferation of human T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells by activating MAPK/Erk and Akt signaling pathways

Embryonic develop associated gene 1 (EDAG-1) is a novel gene identified from the EST bank of differently expressed genes between the 4 months fetal liver and adult liver. Previous studies found that EDAG-1 differentially expressed in hematopoietic tissues, fetal liver and adult liver tissues. High EDAG-1 expression is also found in human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells and peripheral blood of patients with T-ALL, but its functional significance in T-ALL was unclear. This present study aimed to investigate how EDAG-1 is involved in T-ALL. Our results suggested that EDAG-1 was highly expressed in T-ALL cells and peripheral blood of patients with T-ALL. We found that knockdown of EDAG-1 could inhibit the proliferation of T-ALL cells, whereas overexpression of EDAG-1 reversed this change. Furthermore, we found that overexpression of EDAG-1 could activate the MAPK/Erk and AKT signal pathways. Our findings demonstrated that EDAG-1 should play an oncogenic role in T-ALL progression and silencing EDAG-1 might be a potential therapeutic approach for T-ALL.