BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate and interpret the expression level and potential function of TCEA3 in gastric cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: qRT-PCR was used to determine the expression level of TCEA3 in gastric cancer tissues. Pearson χ2 test was performed to clarify the correlation between TCEA3 expression and patients’ clinicopathologic characteristics. Biological function of TCEA3 was tested by proliferation assay and colony formation assay. Flow cytometry was used to study the potential function of TCEA3 in apoptosis induction.

RESULTS: TCEA3 expression was significantly downregulated in gastric cancer tissues compared with paired normal tissues. Poor prognoses were observed in the low TCEA3 expression group of patients in contrast to the high TCEA3 expression group. Functionally, upregulation of TCEA3 inhibited gastric cancer cell proliferation and colony formation. We also found that TCEA3 may attenuate cell growth through apoptosis induction.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that TCEA3 attenuates the proliferation and induces apoptosis of gastric cancer cells.

Keywords: DNA, Complementary - metabolism, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Transcriptional Elongation Factors - metabolism