Objective: To investigate the expression of FOXA2 in human gastric adenocarcinoma and its correlation with cell migration and invasion.
Methods: Fifty-six pairs of gastric adenocarcinoma and matched tumor-adjacent tissues were freshly collected. The expressions of FOXA2 and epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin) in the gastric specimens were detected using immunohistochemistry. Western blotting was performed to test FOXA2 and E-cadherin expressions in different gastric cancer cell lines. FOXA2 was over-expressed in MKN-45 cells. TranswellTM assays were performed to observe gastric cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used for correlation analysis.
Results: The expressions of FOXA2 and E-cadherin in gastric adenocarcinoma were significantly lower than those in matched tumor-adjacent noncancerous tissues. FOXA2 was positively correlated with E-cadherin expression in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues. Clinical analysis suggested that FOXA2 expression was prominently associated with tumor differentiation, infiltration depth, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage, respectively. The lowest expressions of FOXA2 and E-cadherin were found in highly invasive gastric cancer MKN-45 cell line; the highest expressions of FOXA2 and E-cadherin were observed in low metastatic gastric cancer N-87 cell line. Over-expression of FOXA2 significantly increased the expression of E-cadherin protein and obviously inhibited cell migration and invasion in MKN-45 cells.
Conclusion: Expression of FOXA2 is reduced in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and its low-expression is correlated with malignant clinical pathological features. Over-expression of FOXA2 in MKN-45 cells up-regulates E-cadherin expression and inhibits gastric cancer cell migration and invasion.