MiR-199 inhibits EMT and invasion of hepatoma cells through inhibition of Snail expression

H.-Y. Zhang, C.-H. Li, X.-C. Wang, Y.-Q. Luo, X.-D. Cao, J.-J. Chen

Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China. naoqiao2591646178@yeah.net

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• Oncology

OBJECTIVE: MiR-199 expression is associated with liver cancer. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that miR-199 has a complementary binding site to the 3’-UTR region of Snail mRNA. This study investigated whether miR-199 plays a role in regulating Snail expression and affecting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasion of hepatoma cells.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay validated the targeted regulation between miR-199 and Snail. QRT-PCR was used to detect and compare the expression of miR-199 and Snail mRNA in human normal liver HL7702 cells, low metastatic MHCC97L cells, and high metastatic MHCC97H cells. MHCC97H cells were cultured in vitro and divided into two groups: miR-NC group and the miR-199 mimic group followed by the analysis of the expression of Snail, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin, as well as cell invasion ability by transwell assay.
RESULTS: There was a targeted regulatory relationship between miR-199 and Snail mRNA. Compared with HL7702 cells, miR-199 expression was significantly decreased, and Snail expression was significantly increased in MHCC97L and MHCC97H cells, with more changes being observed in high metastatic MHCC97H cells. The transfection of miR-199 mimic significantly downregulated the expression of Snail and N-cadherin in MHCC97H cells, increased E-cadherin expression, inhibited the cell’s EMT process, and invasion.
CONCLUSIONS: The decrease of miR-199 expression plays a role in upregulating the expression of Snail and promoting EMT and invasion of hepatocarcinoma cells. The increase of the expression of miR-199 can inhibit the expression of Snail and inhibit the EMT process and invasion ability of hepatoma cells.

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