Increased microRNA-223 in Helicobacter pylori-associated gastric cancer contributed to cancer cell proliferation and migration.

Dysregulation of microRNA-223 (miR-223) was associated with gastric cancer (GC), in which Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) played important roles. However, the mechanism of relationships between miR-223 and H. pylori-associated GC was largely undiscovered. Here, we found the overexpression of miR-223 was related with H. pylori positive infection in vivo and in vitro in GC by relative quantification of qRT-PCR. Upregulated miR-223 was responsible for the poorer prognosis of GC with H. pylori positive, also. The result indicated not only overexpression of miR-223 stimulated the proliferation by CCK-8 assays and colony formation of H. pylori associated GC cells, but also migration and invasion by scratch assay and transwell invasion assays in vitro. Above all, all our data declared H. pylori infection played an important role in developing GC according to overexpression of miR-223, which increased cancer cell proliferation and migration.