Lymph Node Metastasis-Related Gene ITGA4 Promotes the Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Gastric Cancer Cells by Regulating Tumor Immune Microenvironment

The Integrin Subunit Alpha 4 (ITGA4) plays important roles in cancers pathogenesis. However, the expression and association with clinicopathological and survival probability have not been previously assessed in gastric cancer (GC). Protein expression of ITGA4 was assessed in TMA using immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological factors and survival. The mRNA expression of ITGA4 was also assessed in the HMU-GC cohort. Bioinformatics function analysis was conducted through GSEA. The “CIBERSORT” package was used for immune infiltration analysis. “SvyNom” package is used to construct prognosis model. ITGA4 knock down using shRNA. The evaluation of cell function was performed by CCK-8 and Transwell invasion and migration experiments. ITGA4 was significantly associated with N classification (P = 0.031), tumor location (P = 0.033), WHO classification (P = 0.007), and poor prognosis in mRNA level. GSEA analysis of the validation cohort suggested that ITGA4 was associated with macrophage infiltration. Immunohistochemistry showed that ITGA4 was associated with poor prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis found that ITGA4 (P = 0.045) and lymph node metastasis rate (P = 0.026) were independent prognostic factors and could construct a prognosis model. ITGA4 knockdown cell line significantly reduced the ability of proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. ITGA4 is associated with patient survival in GC and may be an important prognostic biomarker.