N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V (GnT-V) is an
enzyme that catalyzes β1-6 branching of
N-acetylglucosamine on
asparagine (N)-linked
oligosaccharides (N-
glycan) of cell
proteins and the dysfunction of which is a common feature of various
carcinomas. Nevertheless, the role of GnT-V remains controversial. Therefore, the clinical implication of GnT-V expression may differ in each
cancer type. The implication of GnT-V status in patients with
gastric cancer has not been studied extensively. In the present study, we examined GnT-V expression in
gastric cancer specimen both at
protein and
mRNA levels. We compared GnT-V expression with clinical and pathologic variables. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated to show the cause-specific survival. Furthermore, the
small interfering RNA was devised to downregulate the GnT-V
mRNA expression in SGC7901 and BGC 823 cells. We characterized the function implication of GnT-V by cell proliferation and invasiveness analysis. Analysis in
gastric cancer specimen revealed that GnT-V expression correlated with
tumor grade and stage. The overall survival time of positive GnT-V expression in
gastric cancer was significantly shorter than that of negative GnT-V expression. Moreover, the downregulation of GnT-V expression by
small interfering RNA resulted in a decrease of cell proliferation and invasiveness in SGC7901 and BGC 823 cells accompanied by morphological change. This supports that GnT-V correlates with
metastasis and prognosis in
gastric cancer. These results contribute to new insight into the underlying molecular mechanisms of GnT-V regulation in
gastric cancer with potential translational clinical applications.