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Upregulation of ROCK2 in gastric cancer cell promotes tumor cell proliferation, metastasis and invasion

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Abstract

Rho-associated coiled-coil-containing protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) has been known as an effector for the small GTPase Rho and plays an important role in tumor progression and metastasis. However, the effect of ROCK2 in gastric cancer (GC) has not been identified. This study showed that ROCK2 expression significantly increased in clinical GC tissues compared with adjacent non-cancer tissues. Immunohistochemistrical analysis showed that high expression of ROCK2 was correlated with tumor grade, tumor–node–metastasis stage, infiltration depth, lymph node invasion and Ki-67, and predicted poor prognosis in 135 gastric cancer specimens. In addition, we found that upregulated ROCK2 promoted proliferation, metastasis and invasion of GC cells, while ROCK2 knockdown led to the opposite results in vitro by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, colony formation assays, flow cytometric analysis and trans-well assays. Our findings supported that ROCK2 was a significant protein in the progress of GC and would provide a novel promising therapeutic strategy against human GC.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Nantong University innovation project (No.YKC15077, No.YKC15076); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81541052); the Science and Technology Project Foundation of Nantong City (No. MS22015092, No. BK2014084, No. MS22015005); the Medical Scientific Research Projects of Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Health (No. 201455); Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province; and Health Bureau Youth Science Foundation of Nantong Grant (No. WQ2015056).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, 20 **si Road, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China

      Manhua Li, Haifang Ding, **aohang Shan, Qingqing Liu, Ying **ao & Bojun Bao

    2. Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory for Inflammation and Molecular Drug Target, Nantong University, 19 Qi**u Road, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China

      Manhua Li

    3. Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, 20 **si Road, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China

      **g Ke

    4. Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, 20 **si Road, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China

      Hua Huang

    5. Department of Clinical Laboratory,Nantong Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Affiliated to Nantong University, 339 Shiji Avenue, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China

      Qiuhong Wang

    6. Cancer Research Center Nantong, Nantong Tumor Hospital, Nantong, 226001, Jiangsu, China

      Hongyan Qian

    7. Department of Oncology, Nantong Tumor Hospital, Nantong, 226363, Jiangsu, China

      Lei Yang, Xunlei Zhang & **zhang **ao

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    1. Manhua Li
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    Correspondence to Bojun Bao or Hua Huang.

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    Manhua Li and **g Ke have contributed equally to this work.

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    Li, M., Ke, J., Wang, Q. et al. Upregulation of ROCK2 in gastric cancer cell promotes tumor cell proliferation, metastasis and invasion. Clin Exp Med 17, 519–529 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-016-0444-z

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-016-0444-z

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