Furthermore, to explore the role of STAT3 in the inhibition of MUC4 by ALA in gastric cancer cells, AGS, BGC-823, and MKN-28 cells were incubated with 0, 0.5, 1, or 2 mM ALA for 24 h in RPMI with 10% FBS when cell confluence was 60%. The gene discussed is STAT3; the disease is gastric cancer.