Figure 2.

GAST regulated the malignancy through p-STAT3 activation and MMP11 expression in GC cells. (A) The proliferation curves were determined using MTT assay in BGC823 parent cells and cells transfected with empty vector or silenced GAST plasmids. The data were presented as Mean±SD from three independent experiments. (B) Representative image of colony formation by knockdown of GAST expression in BGC823 cells. The cell colonies were stained with 0.2% INT solution and photographed. Colony-forming ability was dramatically decreased in shGAST transfected cells compared with empty controls (100×). The column represented the mean number of colonies from three independent experiments. (C) Silenced GAST deceased the activation of p-STAT3 and MMP11 expression using Western blotting analysis. (D, E) Cell migration and invasion were performed with the transwell assay. Knockdown of GAST expression suppressed cell migration and invasion in BGC823 cells. Data are presented as Mean±SD. (F) Cell monolayer scratching assay showing the different time points of cell migration ability of BGC823 cells with transfected with shGAST constructs or the empty vector. All the experiments were repeated for three times. (**p<0.01).