Lung cancer is the leading cause of
cancer-related mortality, and the deaths are mostly attributed to distant
metastasis. Previous studies have demonstrated that
ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 L3 (UBE2L3) mediates the progression of many human
cancers. However, the roles and molecular mechanisms of UBE2L3 in invasion and
metastasis of
lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) are yet to be fully understood. Here, we studied the expression pattern of UBE2L3 and demonstrated that it is dramatically up-regulated in LUAD tissues compared with the normal tissues, and its overexpression is positively correlated with
lymph node metastasis. Moreover, the upregulation of UBEE2L3 in LUAD tissues is associated with shorter overall survival (OS). UBE2L3 silencing impairs the metastatic capacity of LUAD cells in vitro and in vivo, while its overexpression confers an opposite effect. In addition, our data showed that UBE2L3 promotes
cancer cells epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and
metastasis via the
glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β)/Snail axis. Besides, UBE2L3 was shown to promote ubiquitination and degradation of the GSK-3β. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that UBE2L3 expression is positively correlated with Snail, but negatively correlated with GSK-3β and
E-cadherin in LUAD tissues. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that UBE2L3 modulates
metastasis of LUAD cells.