Objective: To investigate the effect of miR-214 on the invasive and metastatic ability of gastric cancer cells and its possible mechanism. Methods: The potential binding sites of PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten) for miR-214 were analyzed at miRNA target-gene prediction websites: miRanda and TarBase v.5c. The SGC7901 cells were transfected with miR-214 mimic, inhibitor or non-targeting sequence, and cells transfected with the empty vector were used as negtive control. After the above treatments, the PTEN protein expression of the cells was detected by Western blot analysis and the invasive ability of the cells was examined by Transwell chamber assay. Results: Western blot showed that PTEN protein expression in SGC7901 cells group transfected with miR-214 mimic was significantly decreased compared with the cells of other treatment groups (all P<0.05). Transwell assay showed that the invading cell numbers of SGC7901 cells group transfected with miR-214 mimic were significantly more than those of the cells of other treatment groups (all P<0.05). Conclusion: miR-214 can enhance the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer cells and this effect may be related to its action in inhibiting PTEN expression.