Overexpression of ANXA3 is an independent prognostic indicator in gastric cancer and its depletion suppresses cell proliferation and tumor growth.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Tumour metastasis is one of the leading causes of death in GC patients. This study aims to investigate the significance of ANXA3 expression and the mechanism by which ANXA3 is involved in the epithelial-mensenchymal transition (EMT) of gastric cancer cells. Results: Our results confirmed that ANXA3 was high expression at the mRNA and protein level in GC cancer tissues and the majority of GC cell lines. In clinicopathological analysis, we found that increased expression of ANXA3 in tumors was closely associated with a poor prognosis. Xogenous ANXA3 transduction promoted proliferation, clone formation, migration, and invasion. Small interfering RNA silencing of ANXA3 inhibited these processes. Silence of ANXA3 inhibited tumorigenicity in vivo. Additionally, ANXA3 expression is associated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Methods: Firstly, we investigated the ANXA3 expression on mRNA and protein level with RT-PCR and Western blot. Secondly, 183 GC patients tissues were used the to evaluate the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis through immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, The functions of ANXA3 were analyzed in the cell proliferation, Colony Formation, migration, invasion and apoptosis of GC cell lines. Conclusions: Our research suggests that ANXA3 plays important roles in gastric cancer carcinogenesis and metastasis, and provides a valuable prognostic marker and potential target for treatment of gastric cancer patients.