miR-143 inhibits renal cell carcinoma cells metastatic potential by suppressing ABL2.

Although micro RNA (miRNA) expression profiles are widely investigated in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), their potential roles for affecting RCC initiation and progression remain largely unknown. Here, we examined the aberrant expression profiles of miRNAs inhuman metastatic RCC tissues based on Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE37989). We further validated them iRNAs expression data in the largest clinical dataset: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). And cell adhesion and migration abilities and epithelial me senchymal transition (EMT) related proteins were assessed in both normal and tumor RCC cell lines. We suggest that hsa-miR-143 is a potential tumor suppressor in RCC as its down regulation positively correlated with adverse prognosis. Biologically, cell adhesion, migration, and EMT were dramatically inhibited by miR-143. Mechanistically, we found that miR-143 targets ABL proto-oncogene 2 (ABL2), which was also found to be an indicator for poor survival in TCGA database. Our results have important implications in understanding functions of miRNAs in metastatic RCC and will provide a basis for further clinical application.