ABSTRACT
Gastric cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRs), a class of small noncoding RNAs, have been shown to be critical in tumorigenesis. In the present study, the expression levels of miR132 were analyzed in gastric cancer samples using quantitative reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction. In addition, the cell viability, proliferation and invasion abilities were determined in two gastric cancer cell lines, NCIN87 and MGC803, that were transfected with miR132 mimics or antisense oligos. It was found that miR132 expression was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissues when compared with adjacent noncancerous tissues. At the molecular level, the data demonstrated that miR132 inhibits the protein levels of retinoblastoma 1 (RB1) by targeting the 3'untranslated region. Furthermore, reintroduction of RB1 markedly attenuated the proliferative roles of miR132 overexpression. Therefore, the present results indicate that the miR132/RB1 regulatory axis may be a potential novel diagnostic and therapeutic target for the treatment of gastric cancer.