Relationship between VEGF, EGF and invasion, metastasis of gastric cancer cells

Objective: To investigate the relationship between expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the biological properties of gastric cancer cells such as invasion and metastasis.Methods: RT-PCR was performed to semi-quantitatively detect the mRNA expressions of EGF, EGFR, VEGF and VEGFR in four kinds of gastric cancer cell lines BGC823, MGC803, HGC27 and SGC7901, which were classified by their differentiation degree in our experiment. We obtained cell line growth curves from MTT assays. The migration of gastric cancer cells was observed under inverted phase contrast microscope. The changes of invasion and adhesion were detected by a Transwell assay.Results: The growth rates slowed down sequentially in MGC803, HGC27, BGC823 and SGC7901(P＜0.05). The ability of migration, invasion and adhesion were reduced sequentially, and the difference was significant. The expressions of EGF, EGFR, VEGF and VEGFR were significantly stronger in MGC803 and HGC27 than in BGC823 and SGC7901 cells, and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion: The expressions of VEGF and EGF had close relationship with the properties of migration, adhesion and invasion of gastric cancer cells in vitro. Thus, targeting VEGF and EGF may be a potential therapeutic strategy for inhibiting peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer.