Aquaporin-3 positively regulates matrix metalloproteinases via PI3K/AKT signal pathway in human gastric carcinoma SGC7901 cells

Background: matrix metalloproteinases (mmps) are produced by tumor cells,so they may be associated with tumor progression including invasion,migration,angiogenesis and metastasis. aquaporin-3 (aqp3) also plays a critical role in gastric cancer cell migration and proliferation. methods. in this study,aqp3 was silenced or over-expressed in sgc7901 cells. results: we found a significant decrease in mt1-mmp,mmp-2,and mmp-9 expression after aqp3 knockdown,and a significant increase in mt1-mmp,mmp-2,and mmp-9 expression after aqp3 over-expression in sgc7901 cells. we also found that aqp3 silence led to a significant decrease of phosphorylation of ser473 in akt in sgc7901 cells. conclusion: our findings showed that aqp3 might positively regulate mmps proteins expression through pi3k/akt signal pathway in human gastric carcinoma sgc7901 cells. © 2011 xu et al; licensee biomed central ltd.