miRNA-183, a miRNA in the miR-183~96~182 cluster, was significantly up regulated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues as we previous reported. To further explore the role of miR-183 on biological behaviors of esophageal cancer, we transfected miR-183 mimics into an esophageal carcinoma cell line (EC9706) to observe the differences of biological behaviors of EC9706. Real-time RT-PCR showed that miR-183 expression level in EC9706 transfected was 211.205 times higher than the cell transfected with negative control. Flow cytometry analysis revealed the number of apoptotic cells was significantly reduced in the miR-183 mimics transfection group compared with negative control group(4.29±0.41vs8.01±0.48)（t=9.541,p<0.05). And over-expressed miR-183 also enhanced cell proliferation by EdU analysis(0.57±0.033vs0.31±0.028)(t=10.978,p<0.05).Moreover,EC9706 transfected with miR-183 mimics passed G1 phase more quickly (t=9.996，p<0.05). Additionally, genome-wide mRNA microarray was applied to determine the differential expression profile of mRNA influenced by miR-183. Genes differentially expressed by miR-183 over expression were distributed to GO and pathway analysis. Totally 100 up-regulated and 83 down-regulated mRNAs (fold change ≥ 1.5) were identified, which were mostly linked to protein binding, response to stimulus and membrane component ,and were involved in several pathways critically related to carcinogenesis, including p53, TGF-beta signaling pathways. Combined with bioinformatics prediction, PDCD4, involved in apoptotic signaling pathways, was predicted as the putative target of miR-183. Real-time RT-PCR, western blot and luciferase reporter assay were conducted to verify target association. The results of luciferase reporter assays revealed that PDCD4 is a direct target of miR-183. Western blot and qRT-PCR results showed that miR-183 can down-regulate PDCD4 mRNA and protein expression. It could be inferred that miR-183 can inhibit apoptosis in human ESCC cells by repressing the PDCD4 expression, which suggests miR-183 may play an important role in ESCC development.