Liver X receptor α (LXRα) promoted invasion and EMT of gastric cancer cells by regulation of NF-κB activity.

Aberrant expression of Liver X receptor α (LXRα) has been frequently reported in various types of cancers excluding gastric cancer (GC). Moreover, the role of LXRα in human GC has not been previously reported. In this study, we investigated the effect of LXRα down-regulation on invasion and EMT of GC. The expression of LXRα in GC cell lines was detected by real-time PCR. The LXRα siRNA was transiently transfected into GC cells using Lipofectamine™ 2000 reagent. Subsequently, cell invasive ability was evaluated by Transwell assays. Western blot and real-time PCR were used to determined the expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 (MMP-2 and -9), E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Vimentin, Snail, Slug, and Twist in GC cells. In addition, the effect of LXRα down-regulation on the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling pathway was explored by Western blot. From our results, we found that the expression of LXRα was significantly increased in GC tissues and cell lines. Knockdown of LXRα suppressed the invasive ability of GC cells. The levels of MMP-2 and -9 were dramatically decreased by down-regulating LXRα. In addition, we found a decrease of N-cadherin, Twist, and Slug expressions and an increase of E-cadherin expression, but no influence on the expression levels of Vimentin and Snail. We also found that LXRα down-regulation might suppress the phosphorylation of Akt, NF-κB, and IκB. Collectively, our results indicated that down-regulation of LXRα was shown to suppress invasion and EMT of GC cells by decreasing the expressions of related proteins through inhibiting the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway.