MiR-638 acts as a tumor suppressor gene in gastric cancer

• Published in: Oncotarget Vol. 8; no. 64; pp. 108170 - 108180
• Main Authors: Shen, Yu, Chen, Haiqun, Gao, Ling, Zhang, Weigang, He, Jun, Yang, Xiaohua, Qin, Lei, Xue, Xiaofeng, Guo, Zhaoji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals LLC 08.12.2017
• Subjects: Research Paper; SOX2; miR-638; cell proliferation; gastric cancer; invasion
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.22567

Gastric cancer is one of the major causes of cancer mortality. Several microRNAs play a role in the tumor growth and invasion. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains poorly understood. We detected the miR-638 expression levels in tumor samples and adjacent noncancerous tissues from 68 patients with gastric cancer as well as in the gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and SC-M1. The cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry, cell proliferation was observed by CCK-8 assay and cell invasion was detected using Transwell assay. MiR-638 was down-regulated in human GC tissues and its expression level was negatively correlated to TNM stage and lymph metastasis. In the cell lines, aberrant expression of miR-638 was related to the cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion. We also found that SOX2 had a negative correlation with miR-638 in GC tissues, and miR-638 overexpression could decrease SOX2 expression level by directly binding the 3'-UTR of SOX2. , down-regulating SOX2 by siRNA could counteract the effect of miR-638 inhibitor on GC cells proliferation and invasion. Our results demonstrate that miR-638 may play a pivotal role in the growth and invasion of GC.