Over expression of amphiregulin promoted malignant progression in gastric cancer

Human Amphiregulin (AREG) was found to be over expressed in many types of cancer patients including gastric cancer (GC). However, its role in GC development remained unknown. In this study, over expression of AREG in MGC803 and SGC7901 GC cells were conducted by gene transfection through utilizing gateway recombinant cloning technology. Meanwhile, AREG knocked down in BGC823 and MKN45 GC cells were achieved by lentvirus-mediated shRNA oligos infection. The results showed that over expression of AREG promoted cancer cells proliferation, invasion and migration, prevented apoptotic cell death and facilitated cell cycle progression. However, the above AREG-mediated oncogenic phenotypes were reversed while AREG was knocked down in cancer cells. Furthermore, the expression of AREG in GC cells was associated with higher level of activation of both ERK/JNK/p38 and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways, which were also diminished by AREG knocked down. Finally, the result from study in vivo showed that the silencing AREG expression by AREG knocked down inhibited tumor growth in nude mice. Collectively, the data provided a convincingly laboratory evidence that over expression of AREG promoted malignant procession via activation of ERK/JNK/p38 and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. Thus AREG possessed an oncogenic activity and could be served as a target for gastric cancer therapy.