Di-san junyi daxue xuebao (May 2020)

Neurogenin 3 silencing promotes the malignant phenotype of gastric cancer cells

  • JIANG Dandan,
  • CHEN Xi,
  • ZHAO Hailin,
  • GU Haitao,
  • ZHANG Jianbo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.16016/j.1000-5404.201911237
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 42, no. 10
pp. 1008 – 1014

Abstract

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Objective To detect the expression of neurogenin 3 in gastric cancer tissues and cultured gastric cancer cells and determine its role in regulating the malignant phenotype of gastric cancer cells. Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of neurogenin 3 in tissue specimens of intestinal metaplasia gastric mucosa and gastric cancer. The expression of neurogenin 3 in human gastric mucosal epithelial cells (GES-1) and in gastric cancer cell lines with different levels of differentiation was detected using real-time PCR and Western blotting. In gastric cancer MKN-28 cells, the effect of neurogenin 3 gene silencing mediated by lentivirus transfection on the expression of cell differentiation inhibitor of DNA binding or differentiation (Id-1) was detected using real-time PCR. The changes in the proliferation of the cells were assessed using EdU cell proliferation assay and cell colony formation assay, and the migration and invasion of the transfected cells were evaluated with a scratch assay and Transwell assay. Results Neurogenin 3 was lowly expressed in poorly differentiated gastric cancer tissues but highly expressed in adjacent tissues, intestinal metaplasia gastric mucosa tissues and moderately to well differentiated gastric cancer tissues (P 0.05), but was significantly correlated with the level of tumor differentiation (P < 0.001, r=0.412), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05, r=-0.180) and TNM staging (P < 0.001, r=-0.431). The expression of neurogenin 3 in well differentiated gastric cancer MKN-28 and gastric GES-1 cell lines was significantly higher than that in moderately or poorly differentiated gastric cancer SGC-7901, MKN-45 and BGC-823 cell lines. Neurogenin 3 silencing in MKN-28 cells resulted in a lower level of cell differentiation, a significantly increased expression of Id-1 (P < 0.001) and significantly enhanced cell proliferation, migration and invasion (P < 0.01). Conclusion Neurogenin 3 silencing can inhibit the differentiation and promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells in vitro.

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