Putative tumor suppression function of SIRT6 in endometrial cancer

•The expression of SIRT6 negatively affects the proliferation of endometrial cancer cells.•SIRT6 induces apoptosis, and its induction is attributed to the repression of survivin.•The SIRT6 downstream gene survivin could be a novel target for endometrial cancer treatment. SIRT6, a member of the sirtuin family, has been identified as a candidate tumor suppressor. To pursue the role of SIRT6 in endometrial cancer, we investigated the anti-tumorigenic function of SIRT6. The expression of SIRT6 negatively affected the proliferation of AN3CA and KLE endometrial cancer cells. Increased expression of SIRT6 resulted in the induction of apoptosis by repressing the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein survivin. Consistent with this result, a survivin inhibitor YM155 efficiently inhibited cellular proliferation and induced apoptosis. These results revealed that SIRT6 might function as a tumor suppressor of endometrial cancer cells.