Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant disease with high incidence and mortality rates worldwide. Nephronectin (NPNT) was found to be dysregulated in some kinds of cancer. The goal of our study was to explore the expression profile of NPNT based on large numbers of GC samples with detailed clinicopathological and prognostic data from our institution and the data from a public database. A total of 117 GC samples and 73 corresponding non-tumorous adjacent tissues (NATs) were obtained from GC patients and used to detect expression of NPNT through immunohistochemistry. Western blot and qRT-PCR were performed to examine expression of NPNT in GC cell lines. Our results found that the positive expression ratio of NPNT in GC tissues is significantly higher than that in NATs (p<0.001). Chi-squared analysis results showed positive expression ratio of NPNT was significantly associated with depth of tumor invasion (p=0.049) and TNM stage (p=0.017). Kaplan-Meier survival and cox analysis results showed that patients with positive NPNT protein expression tend to have poorer prognosis than those with negative NPNT expression (p=0.0032) and NPNT expression was independent prognostic factor. High expression level was seen in GC cell lines. Furthermore, through a series of cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration associated experiments, we found that NPNT could evidently promote GC cell proliferation, invasion and migration, as well as epithelial-mesenthymal transition. In summary, NPNT was evidently overexpressed in GC and had an oncogenic role. In the future, NPNT could serve as a promising therapeutic target for treating GC patients.

中文翻译：

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肾连蛋白是一种预后生物标志物，可促进胃癌细胞增殖、迁移和侵袭。

胃癌（GC）是一种在全球范围内发病率和死亡率都很高的恶性疾病。发现肾连蛋白 (NPNT) 在某些类型的癌症中失调。我们研究的目标是基于大量 GC 样本以及来自我们机构的详细临床病理学和预后数据以及来自公共数据库的数据来探索 NPNT 的表达谱。从GC患者中获得总共117个GC样本和73个相应的非肿瘤邻近组织（NAT），并用于通过免疫组织化学检测NPNT的表达。进行蛋白质印迹和 qRT-PCR 以检查 NPNT 在 GC 细胞系中的表达。我们的结果发现 NPNT 在 GC 组织中的阳性表达率显着高于 NATs (p <0.001)。卡方分析结果显示NPNT的阳性表达率与肿瘤浸润深度（p = 0.049）和TNM分期（p = 0.017）显着相关。Kaplan-Meier 生存和 cox 分析结果显示，NPNT 蛋白表达阳性的患者往往比 NPNT 表达阴性的患者预后更差（p = 0.0032），并且 NPNT 表达是独立的预后因素。在GC细胞系中观察到高表达水平。此外，通过一系列与癌细胞增殖、侵袭和迁移相关的实验，我们发现NPNT可以明显促进GC细胞增殖、侵袭和迁移以及上皮-间质转化。总之，NPNT 在 GC 中明显过度表达并具有致癌作用。在将来，