SMAD2 and gastric cancer: The result indicated that the mRNA levels of some stemness-related factors, including ALDH1A1, SMAD2, EpCAM, NANOG, SOX2, OCT4, and FOXM1, were significantly decreased; meanwhile, the protein levels of gastric cancer-specific stemness molecules, including SOX2 and FOXM1, were also obviously reduced in BGC-823 cells with KMT2A knockdown (Figure 3a and b).