Gastric tumor cell lines HGC-27 and BGC-823, and human gastric mucosa epithelial cells GES-1 were purchased from Shanghai Cell Bank of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai, China). All tumor cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM; Sigma-Aldrich; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Invitrogen; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA). GES-1 cells were cultured in Eagle's minimal essential medium (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck KGaA) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum. All cells were cultured in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2 at 37°C. Intracellular pH was analyzed as previously described (26 (link)).