Differentially expressed genes in gastric carcinima cells by microRNA-375 (CBX92). unidentified

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-protein-coding small RNAs in the size range 19 to 25 nucleotides (nt) that are cleaved from 70 to100 nt hairpin pre-miRNA precursors. MiRNAs bind to complementary sequences in the 3'-untranslated regions of their target mRNAs and induce mRNA degradation or translational repression. Via these molecular mechanisms, miRNAs were found to be involved in various biological processes including cellular differentiation, proliferation and death. Furthermore, it has been reported that miRNAs were frequently dysregulated in human cancers and that they can act as potent oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Recently, we found that miR-375 was most downregulated in gastric carcinomas and its ectopic expression reduced cell viability. In this analysis, to identify genes whose expressions are regulated by miR-375, we performed gene-expression microarray analysis on NUGC3 and AZ521 cells transfected with precursor-miR-375 for 48 hrs. We found that expression of several apoptosis related genes were altered by miR-375, including YWHAZ, cIAP and Bim.