Sonic Hedgehog Pathway Contributes to Gastric Cancer Cell Growth and Proliferation

The Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway is commonly activated in gastrointestinal cancer. However, our understanding of the Shh pathway in gastric cancer remains limited. Here we examined the effects of cyclop-amine, a specific inhibitor of the Shh signaling pathway, on cell growth and proliferation in gastric primary can-cer cells GAM-016 and the MKN-45 cell line. The results showed that the Shh signaling molecules SHH, PTCH, SMO, GLI1, and GLI2 were intact and activated in both types of cells. Furthermore, we observed that cyclop-amine inhibited gastric cancer cell proliferation through cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. An in vivo study using NOD/SCID mouse xenografts demonstrated that cyclopamine significantly prevented tumor growth and devel-opment. Our study indicated that Shh signaling pathway could promote gastric cancer cell proliferation and tumor development, and blocking this pathway may be a potential strategy in gastric cancer treatment. Key words: apoptosis; cell cycle arrest; cell proliferation; cyclopamine; primary gastric cancer; Sonic Hedgeho