TCEAL2 as a tumor suppressor in renal cell carcinoma is associated with the good prognosis of patients

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common tumors in urinary tract tumors. However, the mechanism that supports renal cell carcinoma is unclear. The function of transcription elongation factor A (SII)-like 2 (TCEAL2) and its association with human cancer have not been reported. Materials and Methods: To explore the role of TCEAL2 in carcinogenesis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), we performed bioinformatics analysis to determine the expression levels of TCEAL2 in ccRCC specimens and normal kidney tissue and then verified findings with our samples by qPCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry staining. Furthermore, the lentiviral vectors were used to increase the expression of TCEAL2 in ccRCC cell lines. The immunofluorescence assay was taken to observe the subcellular location of TCEAL2 in ccRCC cells, and CCK-8 and flow cytometry were introduced for assessing cell proliferation and cell cycle of ccRCC cells, respectively. Results: Compared with adjacent normal kidney tissue and human proximal tubular epithelial cells, the expression of TCEAL2 in ccRCC tissues and cell lines was down-regulated. Patients who had low expression of TCEAL2 had a statistically significant late tumor stage. Restore of TCEAL2 in ccRCC cells inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest in S phase of ccRCC cells. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first report of TCEAL2 expression changes in ccRCC. We found that the decrease of TCEAL2 expression may be related to the occurrence of ccRCC. Further research is needed to clarify the molecular mechanism of TCEAL2 in progress of ccRCC.