Effects of ZNF139 on Gastric Cancer Cells and Mice with Gastric Tumors

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common type of cancer, worldwide. The major molecular factors associated with the pathogenesis of GC remain unclear. Previous studies found that zinc finger proteins are highly abundant in human eukaryotes and tissues, and play an important role in maintaining normal cellular functions and have an association with tumor initiation. In the current study, interference technology was used to silence the ZNF139 protein, a zinc finger protein that was previously found to be closely associated with GC. The results showed that cell viability and proliferation were inhibited in the -knockdown of GC cells. Additional study found that the expression levels of B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and survivin messenger RNAs and proteins were downregulated in -silenced cells, indicating that cells expression are able to induce the growth of tumor cells by mediating the apoptosis pathway. Further experiments showed that knockdown downregulated the expression levels of Bcl-2 and survivin in mice. Overall, the and findings of the present study indicate that ZNF139 may be actively involved in the progression of GC.