ING5 suppresses proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion, and induces autophagy and differentiation of gastric cancer cells: a good marker for carcinogenesis and subsequent progression

Here, we found that ING5 overexpression increased autophagy, differentiation, and decreased proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and lamellipodia formation in gastric cancer cells, while ING5 knockdown had the opposite effects. In SGC-7901 transfectants, ING5 overexpression caused G1 arrest, which was positively associated with 14-3-3 overexpression, Cdk4 and c-jun hypoexpression. The induction of Bax hypoexpression, Bcl-2, survivin, 14-3-3, PI3K, p-Akt and p70S6K overexpression by ING5 decreased apoptosis in SGC-7901 cells. The hypoexpression of MMP-9, MAP1B and flotillin 2 contributed to the inhibitory effects of ING5 on migration and invasion of SGC-7901 cells. ING5 overexpression might activate both β-catenin and NF-κB pathways in SGC-7901 cells, and promote the expression of down-stream genes (c-myc, VEGF, Cyclin D1, survivin, and interleukins). Compared with the control, ING5 transfectants displayed drug resistance to triciribine, paclitaxel, cisplatin, SAHA, MG132 and parthenolide, which was positively related to their apoptotic induction and the overexpression of chemoresistance-related genes (MDR1, GRP78, GRP94, IRE, CD147, FBXW7, TOP1, TOP2, MLH1, MRP1, BRCP1 and GST-π). ING5 expression was higher in gastric cancer than matched mucosa. It was inversely associated with tumor size, dedifferentiation, lymph node metastasis and clinicopathological staging of cancer. ING5 overexpression suppressed growth, blood supply and lung metastasis of SGC-7901 cells by inhibiting proliferation, enhancing autophagy and apoptosis in xenograft models. It was suggested that ING5 expression might be employed as a good marker for gastric carcinogenesis and subsequent progression by inhibiting proliferation, growth, migration, invasion and metastasis. ING5 might induce apoptotic and chemotherapeutic resistances of gastric cancer cells by activating β-catenin, NF-κB and Akt pathways.