Stmn1 up-regulates Cdx2 expression and participates in gastric intestinal metaplasia in vitro and in vivo: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Stmn1 is over-expressed in almost all pathological stages during gastric cancer development, such as chronic atrophic gastritis, dysplasia, and gastric cancer. IM is an important precancerous lesion of gastric cancer, however, whether Stmn1 was up-regulated or down-regulated in this stage is still unknown. We aimed to evaluate the expression level of Stmn1 in IM in vivo and its relationship with important gene of IM named Cdx2 in vitro.EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Wistar rats (n=12, sex in half) were gavaged with MNNG (167μg/ml) to induce IM model in stomach. After pathological examination with AB staining to confirm that the model was successful, relative expression level of Stmn1 was detected between normal group and model group using RT-qPCR. Human gastric cell line GES-1 was used to investigate whether Stmn1 influence expression level of IM essential gene Cdx2 by over-expressing or down-expressing experiments, RT-qPCR and western blot.KEY RESULTS: We have demonstrated that Stmn1 was up-regulated in IM model induced by MNNG in rats in vivo, and it could significantly up-regulate Cdx2 expression level in human gastric cell line GES-1 in vitro.CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: We demonstrated that Stmn1 was involved in IM in this model and it could up-regulating Cdx2 in human gastric cell line GES-1 in vitro. These results suggested that Stmn1 might be a potential biomarker or candidate treatment target of IM in stomach.