miR-20b promotes cell growth in gastric cancer

Objective To investigate the effect of miR-20b on cell proliferation and cell cycle in gastric cancer because of up-regulation of miR-20b in gastric cancer.Methods miR-20b mimics and its inhibitor were respectively transfected into MGC 803 gas-tric cancer cell and methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium （ MTT ） and fluorescence-activated cell sorting （ FACS ） were used to analyze cell growth and cell cycle.Western blot was used to explore the molecular basis of miR-20b.Results Compared with its control, cell growth was obvious elevated and the cell cycle transition was also increased from G 1 to S phase after miR-20b mimics transfection .After transfecting miR-20b inhibitor, cell growth was markedly decreased and cell cycle transition was also delayed from G 1 to S phase.Fur-thermore, miR-20b induced the expression of cyclin D1 （CCND1） and C-Myc, decreased the expressions of p21 and p15.Conclu-sions miR-20b was considered as a potential oncogene to modulate cell growth and cell cycle transition through regulating the expres -sion of cell cycle-related genes . Key words: 微RNAs; MicroRNAs; Stomach neoplasms; Cell proliferation