Fig. 2

Upregulated miR-15b-3p levels enhance GC cell migration, invasion and proliferation, while inhibiting their apoptosis. miR-15b-3p action on SGC-7901 and BGC-823 cell proliferation was measured using colony formation (a), CCK-8 (b) and EdU (c) assays. Scale bar, 100 μm. d Transwell assays of miR-15b-3p mimics/NC/inhibitor/inhibitor-NC transfected BGC-823 and SGC-7901 cells. The cells that had migrated and had been invaded were counted and representative images are shown. e The BGC-823 and SGC-7901 cells were stained after 24 h of miR-15b-3p inhibitor/inhibitor-NC/mimics/NC treatment. Flow cytometry was used for analysis. The early apoptotic cell ratio (%) was recorded and is presented in the column chart. f TUNEL analysis was also used to measure BGC-823 and SGC-7901 cell apoptosis, when subjected to different treatments. Scale bar, 100 μm. g miR-15b-3p mimics/NC/inhibitor/inhibitor-NC transfected BGC-823 and SGC-7901 cells were subjected to western blotting analysis to detect apoptosis-related proteins, BAX, BCL-2, Cleaved caspase-9 and Cleaved caspase-3 levels. β-Actin was utilized as the loading control. Mean ± SEM of three independent experiments are presented