Abstract:Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of autophagy protein microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3B (LC3B) and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers in gastric cancer.Methods After surgery for gastric cancer patients from January 2018 to December 2019, 110 cases of gastric cancer tissue and 40 cases of paracancerous tissue were randomly selected. The expression of LC3B, E-cadherin and vimentin were detected by immunohistochemistry and the relationship between these markers and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer was analyzed.Results Compared with the expression of LC3B and vimentin in adjacent normal tissues, the expression of LC3B and vimentin in GC was upregulated, while the expression of E-cadherin was downregulated (P<0.05). The expressions of LC3B, E-cadherin and vimentin were closely correlated with the tumor differentiation, T stage, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), but not with age, gender and tumor size (P>0.05). LCB expression was positively correlated with vimentin (r=0.320, P=0.001), and negatively correlated with E-cadherin (r=-0.484, P<0.001).Conclusion The expression of LC3B and vimentin increased, while the expression of E-cadherin decreased in GC. The expression of LC3B, E-cadherin and vimentin was closely related to tumor differentiation, T stage, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis. The expression of these markers may be used as potential biomarkers for predicting gastric cancer.