In vitro and in vivo studies on the effects of microRNA-132 on invasion and metastasis in human liver cancer cells / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the biological role and the underlying mechanisms of miR-132 in liver cancer on invasion and metastasis.Methods Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis was used to examine the expression of miR-132 in four liver cancer cell lines (MHCC97H,HCCLYH,MHCC97L and SMMC-7721),a normal liver cell line HL-7702,and in liver tumor tissues with or without metastases.The biological effects of miR-132 transfection on human liver can-cer cells were assessed by wound assay,matrigel counting and in vivo experiments in nude mice.Western blotting was used to detect the expression of E-cadherin,α-cadherin,vimentin,fibronectin and ZEB2 in li-ver cancer cells.Immunohistochemistry was used to detect positive expression of ZEB2 in xenograft tumors.Results The expressions of miR-132 were downregulated in the four liver cancer cell lines when compared with the normal liver cell line (P ＜ 0.05),and in the liver cancer tissues with distant metastases when compared with the tissues without metastases (P ＜ 0.05).After transfection,ectopic expressions of miR-132 markedly inhibited cell migration and invasion in liver cancer cells.When compared with the control group,the expressions of E-cadherin and α-cadherin in the miR-132 transfection group were significantly increased,but the expressions of vimentin,fibronectin and ZEB2 were decreased.In addition,the numbers of metastatic lung lesions in nude mice in the miR-132 transfection group was markedly decreased when compared with the control group.The expressions of ZEB2 in the miR-132 transfection group was also significantly decreased when compared with the control group.Conclusions Transfection of miR-132 effectively inhibited invasion and metastasis of liver cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.miR-132 may become a new target for regulation of gene expression in liver cancer.