Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 52 8 2023 08 06 1720 1729 Zhicheng Pan General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China Huazhong Yun General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China Yun Xiao General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China Fei Tong General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China Guodong Liu General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China Ge Zhang General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China Jianbo Han General Surgery Department, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China 2023 01 26 2023 04 07 Background: In order to explore new targets for the treatment of gastric cancer (GC), we investigated the regulatory mechanism of miR-934 in the malignant phenotype of gastric cancer. Results: GC tissues and cell lines showed notably higher levels of miR-934. Overexpression of miR-934 promoted cell viability, migration and invasion, while inhibited cell apoptosis of GC cells. ZFP36 was predicted and verified to be the target of miR-934 and low protein levels of ZFP36 were observed in GC tissues. The ZFP36 protein expressions were suppressed by miR-934 overexpression, while were facilitated by miR-934 inhibition. Furthermore, the carcinogenic functions of miR-934 were partially reversed after ZFP36 overexpression. The results of in vivo experiments further demonstrated that miR-934 promoted tumor growth and repressed the protein expression of ZFP36. Conclusion: miR-934 served as a tumor promoter in GC via targeting ZFP36, and ZFP36 overexpression could efficiently relieve malignant phenotypes caused by miR-934, which prompted an exploitable molecular target for GC treatment. https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/30977 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/30977/8015