Abstract
Bioinformatics analyses have shown that transmembrane and coiled-coil domain 1 (TMCO1) may be associated with lung adenocarcinoma. However, to the best of our knowledge, no current research has determined whether TMCO1 is involved in the development of lung adenocarcinoma. The present study aimed to identify the association between TMCO1 and lung adenocarcinoma. The present study demonstrated that the positive immunohistochemical staining of TMCO1 in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher compared with paracarcinoma tissues. Additionally, knockdown of TMCO1 was demonstrated to downregulate B-cell lymphoma-2 protein expression levels and upregulate cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase (caspase)-3 and caspase-9 protein expression levels in A549 cells. These changes resulted in decreased apoptosis of A549 cells uponTMCO1 downregulation. In addition, knockdown of TMCO1 decreased matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 expression levels. The expression of N-cadherin and vimentin also decreased. By contrast, the expression levels of E-cadherin protein increased. Knockdown of TMCO1 resulted in the inhibition of A549 cell migration. The results of the present study demonstrated that TMCO1 was associated with lung adenocarcinoma and that inhibition of TMCO1 expression levels negatively regulated the apoptosis and migration of lung adenocarcinoma cells. Therefore, the present study suggests the potential for TMCO1 to be used in the clinical treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.