Aberrant expression of SIRT3 is conversely correlated with the progression and prognosis of human gastric cancer

SIRT3 is a NAD⁺-dependent histone deacetylaseand and plays a critical role in various human carcinomas. However, its precise role in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer (GC) is still unclear. Western blot and Real-Time PCR were used to detect the protein and mRNA level of SIRT3 in freshly collected samples from GC patients. Immunohistochemistry staining was adopted to determine the expression of SIRT3 in 65 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples from GC patients. In addition, western blot was used to detect the protein levels of SIRT3 and HIF-1α in gastric cancer cells MGC-803 transfected with SIRT3 or control siRNA. Western blot analysis of 25 samples from GC patients showed that 64% (16/25) of patients exhibited decreased expression of SIRT3, whereas 4.0% (1/25) of patients displayed complete loss. In addition, Real-Time PCR analysis showed that GC patients had decreased expression of SIRT3 mRNA. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry analysis of 65 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples from GC patients showed that 67.7% (44/65) had decreased SIRT3 staining in the cancer tissues. Notably, the expression level of SIRT3 was inversely correlated with clinicopathological variable, including tumor infiltration, tumor differentiation and tumor stage and 5-year survival of these patients. In vitro experiment showed that knockdown of SIRT3 in MGC-803 gastric cancer cells significantly increased the expression of HIF-1α. Our results provide the first evidence showing that an aberrantly decreased expression of SIRT3 occurred in GC patients, suggesting that SIRT3 might function as a mitochondrial tumor suppressor in GC. Furthermore, the possible mechanism by which SIRT3 affect the progress of GC is its direct control of HIF-1α.