Upregulation of miR-191 promotes cell growth and invasion via targeting TIMP3 in prostate cancer.

PURPOSE

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently malignant neoplasm in men. MicroRNAs (miRs) have been identified to play important biological roles in a variety of tumors. Several studies showed that miR-191 was involved in the development of different cancers, but its role in prostate cancer remains unclear.

METHODS

Human PCa cell lines DU145, PC-3 and LNCAP, and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and human prostate epithelial cell line RWPE-1 were used. The expression level of miR-191 in 48 paired prostate tumor and adjacent normal tissues was assessed along with the clinical patient features. Synthetic miR-191 mimics and inhibitors were used to overexpress or inhibit the miR-191 level. CCK8 and colony formation assay were used to evaluate the cell growth. The ability of cell invasion was studied by transwell assay. Dual-luciferase experiment was used to identify the target gene and western blot was performed to evaluate the protein level.

RESULTS

miR-191 was overexpressed in PCa tissue samples compared to the normal group as well in PCa-derived cell lines. Upregulation miR-191 in PC-3 cells significantly promoted while downregulation miR-191 in DU145 cells retarded the cell proliferation and invasion. Furthermore, TIMP3 were proved to be a direct target gene of miR-191 and knockdown of TIMP3 reversed the function of miR-191 downregulation.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that miR-191 promoted the cell growth and invasion ability in prostate cancer through downregulating TIMP3 and might be a potential target for the biotherapy for PCa.