Liu Chongzhong, Zhu Jiankang, Liu Fengyue, Wang Yadong, Zhu Min
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250012, P.R. China.
Oncol Lett. 2018 Jan;15(1):1279-1286. doi: 10.3892/ol.2017.7357. Epub 2017 Nov 8.
The identification of microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) has enabled the improved understanding of the carcinogenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs comprised of 19-24 nucleotides that regulate the expression of target genes. In the present study, miR-138 was demonstrated to be downregulated in human HCC tissues and cell lines. Restoration of miR-138 expression repressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells. Furthermore, specificity protein 1 (SP1) was identified as a target gene of miR-138 in HCC using bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter assay, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. Knockdown of SP1 produced similar suppressive effects to those induced by miR-138 overexpression in HCC cells. These results indicate that miR-138 targeted SP1 to repress the growth, migration and invasion of HCC cells, and may therefore represent a therapeutic target in human HCC.
微小RNA（miRNA/miR）的鉴定有助于加深对肝细胞癌（HCC）发生发展的理解。miRNA是由19-24个核苷酸组成的小型非编码RNA，可调节靶基因的表达。在本研究中，miR-138在人类HCC组织和细胞系中被证明表达下调。恢复miR-138的表达可抑制HCC细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭。此外，通过生物信息学分析、荧光素酶报告基因检测、逆转录-定量聚合酶链反应和蛋白质印迹分析，特异性蛋白1（SP1）被确定为HCC中miR-138的靶基因。敲低SP1在HCC细胞中产生了与miR-138过表达诱导的类似抑制作用。这些结果表明，miR-138靶向SP1以抑制HCC细胞的生长、迁移和侵袭，因此可能是人类HCC的一个治疗靶点。
