Expression of miR-30c and BCL-9 in gastric carcinoma tissues and their function in the development of gastric cancer

microRNA-30c (miR-30c) is a member of the miR-30s family, which is known to serve important roles in the occurrence and development of numerous tumor types. Our previous microarray analysis of extracted RNA from tissue samples was conducted to examine the expression of miR-30c and predict miR-30c target genes. In the present study, it was determined that the expression of miR-30c was differentially expressed in 82 paired gastric cancer (GC) and paracancerous tissues. Cellular expression of miR-30c in two GC cell lines MKN-45, MKN-74 and one non-cancer cell line GES-1 was modified using the miR-30c-mimic and miR-30c-inhibitor reagents, in a series of transfection experiments. Following transfection of cancer and non-cancer cell lines with the miR-30c-mimic, cell proliferation and apoptosis rates were increased. Compared with the NC group, MKN-74 cell proliferation was significantly inhibited (P<0.05) following transfection with the miR-30c-mimic at 48 and 24 h, GES-1 was significantly inhibited (P<0.05) at 24 and 48 h, and apoptosis was significantly reduced in transfected MKN-74 cells (P<0.05). The clinicopathological data and the expression of BCL-9 and miR-30c in patients with GC were used to identify associations. The expression levels of miR-30c were associated with age. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the BCL-9 expression levels in MKN-74 cells were higher following transfection with the miR-30c-mimic, and were lower following transfection with the miR-30c-inhibitor, both compared with the negative control group. It was concluded that compared with the negative control group, the expression of miR-30c was low in GC tissues and may be involved in GC development via regulation of proliferation, apoptosis and the cell cycle.