High expression of HMBOX1 contributes to poor prognosis of gastric cancer by promoting cell proliferation and migration.

Homeobox-containing 1 (HMBOX1) has been reported to be associated with biological characteristics of some tumors, but its roles in gastric cancer have never been reported. In the present study, we found that HMBOX1 expression was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines and correlated with the TNM stage, lymph-node metastatic and the overall survival (OS) of patients of gastric cancer. The overexpression of HMBOX1 in gastric cancer cells enhanced cell proliferation by accelerating cell cycle, induced cell migration. In contrast, silencing HMBOX1 inhibited these processes. And the expression of HMBOX1 was related with the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and CD133. What's more, we found that the expression of CD133 had a significantly positive correlation with HMBOX1 in gastric cancer tissues, and the co-expression of HMBOX1 and CD133 was significantly correlated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients, especially for patients at III and IV stage. In conclusion, HMBOX1 was upregulated in gastric cancer and correlated with gastric cancer cell proliferation and migration. Moreover, HMBOX1 combined CD133 might be useful to predict survival of patients with advanced gastric cancer.