MT1­MMP promotes the proliferation and invasion of gastric carcinoma cells via regulating vimentin and E­cadherin.

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to explore the possible effects of membrane­type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1­MMP) on gastric carcinoma cells proliferation and invasion. Immunohistochemistry analysis was conducted to measure MT1­MMP expression level in 15 patients with gastric carcinoma. Subsequently, recombinant short hairpin RNA (shRNA) vectors targeting MT1­MMP were constructed to silence the expression of MT1­MMP in gastric carcinoma cells. Then, the inhibitive efficiency was verified via reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT­qPCR) and western blot analysis. The effects of MT1­MMP silencing on cell proliferation and invasion were detected through Cell Counting Kit­8 test and Transwell assays. The expression levels of vimentin and epithelial cadherin (E­cadherin) were detected by RT­qPCR. The immunohistochemistry analysis results revealed that MT1­MMP expression in gastric carcinoma tissues was markedly overexpressed compared with non­cancerous adjacent tissues. The MT1­MMP expression level in cancer­derived cell line AGS cells was also significantly increased compared with that in non­cancer­derived GES­1 cells. In addition, the MT1­MMP expression level in AGS cells was significantly decreased via shRNA transfection. Cell proliferation and invasion were markedly inhibited following knockdown of MT1­MMP level in AGS cells. These inhibitory effects were associated with the decreased expression of vimentin and increased expression of E­cadherin. MT1­MMP was overexpressed in gastric carcinoma cells, and silencing of MT1­MMP inhibited the proliferation and invasion of cells via regulating the expression of vimentin and E­cadherin.