Abstract:To investigate the expression of miR-20b in ovarian carcinoma cell line and its effect on proliferation and apoptosis. Methods The relative expression levels of miR-20b in A431, SKOV3 and Hose cell lines were measured by qRT-PCR. The SKOV3 cell line was divided into non-transfection control group without transfection, negative control group transfected with miR-20b scramble and miR-20b mimics group transfected with miR-20b mimics by Lipofectamine 2000. The proliferation ability was tested by CCK8 assay. The apoptosis rate was measured by flow cytometry. The expression levels of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome 10(PTEN) and cleaved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) were measured by Western blot. Results The expression levels of miR-20b in the A431 and SKOV3 cell lines were significantly lower than that in the Hose cell line. The value of OD 450 nm in the miR-20b mimics group was significantly lower than that in the non-transfection control and negative control groups at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. The apoptosis rate of the miR-20b mimics group was signifi-cantly higher than that of the negative control and non-transfection control groups. Compared to the negative control group, the expression level of PTEN was down-regulated and the cleaved PARP was up-regulated in the miR-20b mimics group. Conclusions miR-20b inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of ovarian carcinoma cells, the mechanism may be associated with down-regulation of PTEN and up-regulaton of cleaved PARP.