The role of miR-100-mediated Notch pathway in apoptosis of gastric tumor cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding regulatory molecules that influence many biological functions, including apoptosis, but their role in the regulation of apoptosis in gastric tumor cells has not been intensively investigated. Here, we showed that miR-100 was specifically upregulated in human epithelium-derived gastric cancer cells and that silencing miR-100 expression in human gastric epithelial cancer cells initiated a robust apoptotic response in vitro. Our in vivo assays indicated that the development of gastric cancer was inhibited by the miR-100 antagonism via initiating apoptosis of tumor. The results presented that antagonism of miR-100 increased the expression level of HS3ST2, the target gene of miR-100, and further resulted in the activation of the Notch-apoptosis pathway in tumor cells. The data also revealed that silencing of miR-100 expression sensitized gastric cancer cells to chemotherapy. Therefore our study presented a novel miR-100 mediated Notch pathway in apoptosis of tumor cells.