The proapoptotic caspase adaptor protein (PACAP) is involved in cell-cycle regulation and promotes apoptosis. Both MGC29506 and PACAP are isoforms of the MGC29506 gene and are generated by differential splicing of the alternative splice-acceptor. In studying PACAP, we inadvertently constructed the eukaryotic expression vector MGC29506. At present, the function of the MGC29506 gene is largely unknown with the key exception of information obtained by bioinformatics. We studied the role of MGC29506 in gastric cancer cell proliferation, the cell cycle and apoptosis. In addition, we studied MGC29506 expression in gastric cancer patients and explored its significance. We found that the expression of MGC29506 in gastric cancer samples was lower than in samples from adjacent non-tumor tissues. We found that the MGC29506 protein was localized in the cell nucleus of AGS cells and inhibited their proliferation. Higher percentages of G0/G1 and S phase cells were induced by transfection with the MGC29506 gene than were induced by transfection with the negative control. We showed that cells transfected with MGC29506 were arrested at the G0/G1 and S phases of the cell cycle. However, we found no significant increases in apoptosis of cells transfected with MGC29506 compared with cells transfected with the negative control. Our results suggested that MGC29506 has the potential of functioning as a novel suppressor gene in gastric cancer. Downregulation of MGC29506 may also promote the progression of gastric cancer.
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