J Cancer 2021; 12(15):4574-4584. doi:10.7150/jca.59138 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Surgical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China.
2. Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710004, China.
As a secretory cell transcription factor, muscle intestine stomach expression 1 (Mist1) is associated with serous secretory cell development and gastric chief cell maturation. Here, we focus on the function of Mist1 in gastric adenocarcinoma carcinogenesis. Based on clinical data and a mouse model of gastric cancer, we found that Mist1 expression was reduced in gastric cancer. Then, we overexpressed Mist1 using a lentivirus system and found that overexpression of Mist1 could inhibit gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Additionally, in vivo, we assessed the function of Mist1 in a gastric cancer xenograft model and distant pulmonary metastasis model. Overexpression of Mist1 decreased tumour growth and distant metastasis in vivo, suggesting that Mist1 acts as a tumour suppressor in gastric carcinogenesis. Furthermore, Mist1 overexpression inhibited epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in gastric cancer by suppressing β-catenin transcription activity and then the Wingless and INT-1 (Wnt)/β-catenin signalling pathway, which could be reversed by a Wnt/β-catenin-specific agonist. In conclusion, this study indicated that overexpression of Mist1 could reverse EMT in gastric carcinogenesis by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and that Mist1 might be a novel marker for early gastric cancer screening.
Keywords: Mist1, gastric cancer, EMT, Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway