Objective      To investigate the mechanism by which human telomerase reverse enzyme (hTERT) regulates Gli1 expression to promote metastasis of gastric cancer cells.       Methods       After down-regulation of Gli1 expression with a specific siRNA against Gli1

the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells were detected by wound healing and Transwell assays. The protein expression of hTERT and Gli1 was detected by Western blotting. Ectopic expression of hTERT was performed using pIRES2 vector. After the dual luciferase vector that contains the Gli1 promoter was co-transfected into SGC-7901 cells

and the luciferase activity in the cells was measured.       Results      Si-Gli1 markedly inhibited the Gli1 expression

and the down-regulation of Gli1 significantly suppressed the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells. Ectopic expression of hTERT significantly enhanced the expression of Gli1 at both mRNA and protein levels (P0.01). Over-expression of hTERT also significantly enhanced the luciferase activity of Gli1 promoter (P0.01).       Conclusion      hTERT may promote the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells through enhancing Gli1 expression at transcriptional level.