Table 1. Effects of MEF2 alterations in cancers.
| Cancer type | MEF2 protein involved | Role of MEF2 protein | Alteration of MEF2 protein | Effects of MEF2 alteration | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Immature T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia | MEF2C | Oncogene | Increased expression due to rearrangements or alterations affecting interacting proteins. | Inhibition of differentiation. | [124] |
| B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia | MEF2D | Oncogene | Fusion with DAZAPI. | Promotion of colony formation and proliferation in low serum conditions. Inhibition of apoptosis. | [125] |
| Myeloid leukemia | MEF2C | Oncogene | Expression activated by retroviral insertion in mouse model. Increased expression in patient samples with MLL rearrangements. | Promotion of colony formation, migration, invasion and stem-cell-like properties. | [126–128] |
| Hepatocellular carcinoma | primarily MEF2C and MEF2D | Oncogene | Increased expression. | Epithelial-mesenchymal transition and invasiveness. Variable effects on proliferation. | [39, 129, 130, 133] |
| Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma | MEF2C | Oncogene | Increased expression resulting from decreased YY1 expression. | Promotion of MMP10 expression and invasiveness. | [136] |
| Lipo- and leiomyosarcoma | MEF2C, MEF2D | Tumor suppressor | Decreased MEF2 activity and abundance resulting from increased HDAC4 and PI3K/AKT activity. | Promotion of cell proliferation and anchorage independent growth. | [141] |
| Rhabdomyosarcoma | MEF2C, MEF2D | Tumor suppressor | Loss of MEF2D expression. Increased ratio of MEF2Cα1 (less active isoform) compared to MEF2Cα2. |
Inhibition of differentiation. Promotion of cell proliferation, anchorage independent growth and cell migration. |
[113, 142] |
| Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma | MEF2B, very rarely MEF2C | Tumor suppressor | Nonsynonymous mutations in the MADS and MEF2 domains with hotspots at K4, Y69 and D83. Primarily nonsense, frameshift and stop codon read-through mutations in the transactivation domains. | May de-repress chemotaxis. May promote MYC and TGFB1 expression. |
[55, 70, 143–146] |
| Mantle cell lymphoma | MEF2B | Unknown | Primarily K23R mutations. | Unknown. | [147, 148] |