Ectopic expression of MIIP in GC cell lines BGC823 and HGC27 induced G<sub>0</sub>/G<sub>1</sub> cell cycle arrest and inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in vitro, as well as the growth of GC xenografts and metastasis of tumors in vivo.
Here, the authors unravel a mechanism through which EGF stimulation induces MIIP phosphorylation, leading to MIIP interacting with RelA-this prevents RelA deactylation and enhances transcriptional activity, facilitating metastasis.
Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data showed that decreased MIIP expression was significantly associated with MIIP hemizygous deletion (p = 0.0005), which was detected in 27.7% (52/188) of CRC cases, and associated with lymph node and distant metastasis (p < 0.05 for both).