MT1-MMP promotes the proliferation and invasion of gastric carcinoma cells via regulating vimentin and E-cadherin

The present study aimed to explore the possible effects of membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) on gastric carcinoma cells proliferation and invasion. Immunohistochemistry analysis was conducted to measure MT1-MMP expression level in 15 patients with gastric carcinoma. Subsequently, recombinant short hairpin RNA (shRNA) vectors targeting MT1-MMP were constructed to silence the expression of MT1-MMP in gastric carcinoma cells. Then, the inhibitive efficiency was verified via reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot analysis. The effects of MT1-MMP silencing on cell proliferation and invasion were detected through Cell Counting Kit-8 test and Transwell assays. The expression levels of vimentin and epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin) were detected by RT-qPCR. The immunohistochemistry analysis results revealed that MT1-MMP expression in gastric carcinoma tissues was markedly overexpressed compared with non-cancerous adjacent tissues. The MT1-MMP expression level in cancer-derived cell line AGS cells was also significantly increased compared with that in non-cancer-derived GES-1 cells. In addition, the MT1-MMP expression level in AGS cells was significantly decreased via shRNA transfection. Cell proliferation and invasion were markedly inhibited following knockdown of MT1-MMP level in AGS cells. These inhibitory effects were associated with the decreased expression of vimentin and increased expression of E-cadherin. MT1-MMP was overexpressed in gastric carcinoma cells, and silencing of MT1-MMP inhibited the proliferation and invasion of cells via regulating the expression of vimentin and E-cadherin.