Mir-29c Expression Predicts Poor Prognosis In Patients With Gastric Cancer And Its Role In Rock-I Expression And Cell Apoptosis

Objective: To explore the expression of miR-29c in gastric cancer cells and the effect on the RhoA/ROCK pathway. Method: MiR-29c, RhoA and ROCK-1 protein expression in cancer tissues and para-carcinoma tissues from 114 gastric cancer patients were detected and their relationships with prognosis were explored. MiR-29c-mimic/miR blank vector (miR-control) was successfully transferred to human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and their effects on ROCK-I cell migration and apoptosis were detected. Untreated SGC-7901 cells were set as a blank control group. Pearson analysis was used to analyze the correlation between miR-29c and ROCK-I protein expression. Results: MiR-29c was down-regulated and RhoA and ROCK-I proteins were upregulated in gastric cancer tissues over those in para-carcinoma tissues (P<0.001). The low expression of miR-29C and the high expression of ROCK-I protein was related to a low 5-year survival (both P<0.05). The relative expression level of miR-29c in the miR-29c-mimic was higher than miR-control and the control group (P<0.05). The relative expression levels of RhoA protein and ROCK-I protein, as well as cell penetrating numbers in the miR-29c-mimic were significantly lower than those in the miR-control and blank control groups (P<0.05). The apoptosis rate of miR-29c-mimic were significantly higher than those in the miR-control and blank control groups (P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis results showed that miR-29c was negatively correlated with the expression level of ROCK-I protein (r = -0.500, P = 0.025). Conclusion: MiR-29c plays a similar role to an anti-oncogene and might be involved in the regulation of migration and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells through RhoA/ROCK signaling.