High MIG-6 expression promotes tumor proliferation and metastasis of gastric cancer.

Mitogen-inducible gene-6 () is a feedback inhibitor that targets activated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and suppresses tumor growth fueled by constitutively activated EGFR. Nevertheless, the action mechanism of in gastric cancer (GC) remains to be elucidated. Western blotting, fluorescence quantitative PCR, and immunohistochemistry were performed to detect the expression of in GC cell lines and tissues. Public databases were used to analyze in patients with GC. Furthermore, the GC cell lines were selected for the knockdown and overexpression of . Bioinformatics and histological analyses showed that was elevated in human GC tissues and cells. The Kaplan-Meier plotter showed that patients with elevated MIG-6 expression had significantly shorter survival. Furthermore, small interference RNA-mediated reduction of expression decreased EGFR/AKT signaling, as well as the proliferation and metastasis of human GC cells , whereas its overexpression increased these actions. Also, overexpression promoted the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of GC cells as well as the expression of the migration-associated protein matrix metalloproteinase-9 . These results suggest that can serve as a new prognostic biomarker or potential therapeutic target for the identification of patients with poor survival.