Aberrant hypermethylation of miR-9 genes in gastric cancer

Carcinogenesis of the stomach involves multiple steps including genetic mutation or epigenetic alteration of tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes. Recently, tumor suppressive miRNAs have been shown to be deregulated by aberrant hypermethylation during gastric cancer progression. In this study, we demonstrate that three independent genetic loci encoding for miR-9 (miR-9-1, miR-9-2 and miR-9-3) are simultaneously modified by DNA methylation in gastric cancer cells. Methylation-mediated silencing of these three miR-9 genes can be reactivated in gastric cancer cells through 5-Aza-dC treatment. Subsequent analysis of the expression levels of miR-9 showed that it was significantly downregulated in gastric cancers compared with adjacent normal tissues (p value < 0.005). A similar tendency toward a tumor-specific DNA methylation pattern was shown for miR-9-1, miR-9-2 and miR-9-3 in 72 primary human gastric cancer specimens. Ectopic expression of miR-9 inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, suggesting its tumor suppressive potential in gastric cancer progression.