NFIB promotes cell growth, aggressiveness, metastasis and EMT of gastric cancer through the Akt/Stat3 signaling pathway.

Nuclear factor I/B (NFIB) plays a crucial role in the progression of several types of cancers. However, its role in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. The present study revealed that NFIB was highly expressed in GC tissues and was positively associated with the clinicopathological features of GC patients. Downregulation of NFIB inhibited the tumor growth, migration and aggression of MKN45 and HGC27 cells in vitro. In addition, NFIB expression promoted epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT), which was accompanied with decreased E‑cadherin and increased vimentin expression. Since AKT and Stat3 play an important role in EMT and tumor progression, we examined whether there is a correlation between NFIB and AKT/Stat3 signaling pathways in GC. Our results revealed that NFIB exhibits its oncogenic functions in GC development by regulating the phosphorylation of both AKT and Stat3 molecules. Knocking down the NFIB expression may enhance the phosphorylation of AKT while inhibiting the Stat3 phosphorylation, suggesting that the AKT/Stat3 signaling pathway may be the downstream target of NFIB with which it exerts its roles on GC development. These results revealed that NFIB promotes tumor growth and aggressiveness of GC. In addition, downregulation of NFIB alters the protein kinase B/signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (AKT/Stat3) axis, which could be a potential molecular mechanism for precise target treatment of GC.