Objective  To explore the effect of FXYD domain-containing ion transport regulator 3 (FXYD3) on the proliferation and migration of human pancreatic cancer cells.

Methods  Immunohistochemistry, histopathology and real-time quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were used to detect the expression of FXYD3 in 21 cases with normal pancreas tissues, 18 cases with chronic pancreatitis tissues and 50 cases with pancreatic cancer tissues. The differences of FXYD3 expression level in pancreatic cancer with different pathological characteristics were analyzed. Effect of FXYD3 overexpression on the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells were detected by CCK-8 assay and monoclonal assay; the Transwell method was used to detect the effect of FXYD3 overexpression on the invasion of pancreatic cancer cells.

Results  The ratios of FXYD3 positive cells in samples of normal pancreatic tissues, chronic pancreatitis tissues and pancreatic cancer tissues were 0, 22.2% and 26.0% respectively, and the ratio of FXYD3 positive cells in chronic pancreatitis tissues and pancreatic cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in normal pancreatic tissues (P=0.007, 0.037). There were no correlations of FXYD3 positive expression with staging, pathological grading, lymph node metastasis and tumor sites (P>0.05). The result of CCK-8 method showed that the cells transfected with FXYD3 had significant stronger proliferative ability from the third day (P < 0.01). Colony formation assay showed that the clonal number of T3M4 cells overexpressed with FXYD3 was significantly greater (P < 0.01). The result of Transwell method showed that the migratory number of T3M4 cells overexpressed with FXYD3 was significantly greater than that of the control group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion  FXYD3 is significantly up-regulated in pancreatic cancer tissues, which is mainly due to the increase of self-expressed level of cancer cells, indicating that FXYD3 can promote the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells.