Endoplasmic reticulum stress-related protein expression levels are negatively associated with lncRNA NEAT1 expression in gastric cancer cells. (A) lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-500a expression levels in gastric cancer cells were determined via reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. (B) GRP78, XBP-1S and XBP-1U protein expression levels in gastric cancer cells were determined via western blotting. (C) Linear regression was performed to detect the association between lncRNA NEAT1 expression and the expression levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress-related proteins in gastric cancer cells. (D) Linear regression was performed to detect the association between miR-500a expression and the expression levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress related-proteins in gastric cancer cells. *P<0.05 and ***P<0.001 vs. GES1. lncRNA, long non-coding RNA; NEAT1, nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1; miR, microRNA; GRP78, 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein; XBP-1, X-box binding protein-1.