Yang P, Zhang M, Liu X, Pu H. MicroRNA-421 promotes the proliferation and metastasis of gastric cancer cells by targeting claudin-11.
Exp Ther Med 2017;
14:2625-2632. [PMID:
28962204 PMCID:
PMC5609270 DOI:
10.3892/etm.2017.4798]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2016] [Accepted: 03/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate the expression of microRNA (miR)-421 in gastric cancer and to investigate its biological function and underlying mechanism of action in the development of gastric cancer. The expression of miR-421 was measured in 60 pairs of clinically removed gastric cancer tissues and matched adjacent normal gastric tissues by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In addition, following transfection with an miR-421 inhibitor to suppress the expression of miR-421, the proliferation, migration and cell cycle distribution of human gastric carcinoma MKN28/MKN74 cells were determined by cell counting, Transwell and flow cytometry assays. The target gene of miR-421 was also predicted using bioinformatic analysis and verified by dual-luciferase reporter gene assay and western blot analysis. Furthermore, overexpression of the miR-421 target protein was induced in MKN28/MKN74 cells to determine its function. It was observed that miR-421 was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer tissues and that the expression of miR-421 was associated with lymph node metastasis and the clinical stage of gastric cancer (all P<0.05). Claudin11 (CLDN11) was predicted and verified as a direct target of miR-421. In vitro experiments demonstrated that inhibition of miR-421 expression suppressed the proliferation and metastasis of MKN28/MKN74 cells and induced G1/S-phase cell cycle arrest (all P<0.05). Analagous results were observed in MKN28/MKN74 cells following overexpression of the CLDN11 protein. Collectively, these data suggest that miR-421 may promote the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer by inhibiting the expression of CLDN11.
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