Gastric cancer is one of the most frequently occurring malignancies in the world. Development of multiple drug resistance (MDR) to chemotherapy is known as the major cause of treatment failure for gastric cancer. Multiple drug resistance 1/P-glycoprotein (MDR1/p-gp) contributes to drug resistance via ATP-dependent drug efflux pumps and is overexpressed in many solid tumors including gastric cancer. To investigate the role of MDR1 knockdown on drug resistance reversal, we knocked down MDR1 expression using shRNA in drug resistant gastric cancer cells and examined the consequences with regard to adriamycin (ADR) accumulation and drug-sensitivity. Two shRNAs efficiently inhibited mRNA and protein expression of MDR1 in SGC7901-MDR1 cells. MDR1 knockdown obviously decreased the ADR accumulation in cells and increased the sensitivity to ADR treatment. Together, our results revealed a crucial role of MDR1 in drug resistance and confirmed that MDR1 knockdown could reverse this phenotype in gastric cancer cells.