Analysis of microRNA expression profiling identifies microRNA-503 regulates metastatic function in hepatocellular cancer cell.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Metastasis of cancer is a complex process that involves multiple alterations. Recent evidence indicates that small non-protein coding RNA molecules (miRNAs) might be involved in cancer-related processes in humans. This study was to systematically investigate the differentially expressed miRNAs during metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using microarray technology.

METHODS

The differentially expressed miRNAs between HCCLM3 and MHCC97-L, two HCC cell lines with differently metastatic potentials were displayed using microarray technology. The expression of miR-503 was verified by the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In addition, the lentivirus-delivered system for expressing miR-503 in HCCLM3 cells was employed to investigate whether miR-503 was involved in invasive phenotype of HCC cell.

RESULTS

Our study built a metastasis-related miRNAs expression profiling, which includes 327 miRNAs expressed differentially between HCCLM3 and MHCC97-L cell lines. Furthermore, expression of miR-503 by lentivirus-delivered system in HCCLM3 cell was established successfully. Our results showed that miR-503 induces a G1 arrest and decreased proliferation for HCCLM3 cell (P < 0.05). In addition, miR-503 inhibits migration and invasion of HCCLM3 cell in vitro (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

This study described a metastasis-related miRNAs expression profiling and revealed miR-503 regulating metastatic function in HCC cell.