MiR-126 inhibits the invasion of gastric cancer cell in part by targeting Crk.

OBJECTIVE Accumulating evidence has shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) are aberrantly expressed in human gastric cancer and crucial to tumorigenesis. Herein, we identified the role of miR-126 in human gastric cancer (GC) growth and development in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS MiR-126 expression was investigated in GC tissue samples and cell lines by real-time PCR. Crystal violet test and Transwell assay were conducted to explore the effects of miR-126 on the proliferation and invasion of human GC cell lines, respectively. The impaction of miR-126 over expression on putative target Crk (v-crk sarcoma virus CT10 oncogene homolog) was subsequently confirmed via Western blot. Crk specific siRNA was used to suppress Crk expression. RESULTS MiR-126 expression was frequently and markedly downregulated (p < 0.05) in human gastric cancer tissues. Overexpression of miR-126 inhibited GC cells invasion but did not affect its proliferation in vitro. Moreover, overexpression of miR-126 significantly decreased (p < 0.05) the protein levels of Crk, which has previously been identified as a direct target of miR-126. Knockdown of Crk also markedly suppressed GC cells invasion. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrated that overexpression of miR-126 inhibited GC cells invasion in part by targeting Crk. These findings suggested that miR-126 played major roles in the malignant behavior of GC and it might be a promising therapeutic target of GC.