miRNA-342 regulates CEACAM1-induced lumen formation in a three-dimensional model of mammary gland morphogenesis

Abstract

Lumen formation of breast epithelium is rapidly lost during tumorigenesis along with expression of cell adhesion molecule CEACAM1. CEACAM1 induces lumena in a three-dimensional culture of MCF7/CEACAM1 cells that otherwise fail to form lumena. We hypothesized miRNAs may be involved because >400 genes were up- or down-regulated in MCF7/CEACAM1 cells and miRNAs may modify global expression patterns. Comparative analysis of miRNA expression in MCF7 versus MCF7/CEACAM1 cells revealed two miRNAs significantly down-regulated (hsa-miR-30a-3p by 6.73-fold and hsa-miR-342-5p by 5.68-fold). Location of miR-342 within an intron of the EVL gene, hypermethylated and involved in tumorigenesis, suggested that miR-342 overexpression may block lumen formation. In fact, overexpression of miR-342 in MCF7/CEACAM1 cells significantly blocked lumen formation (p < 0.001). ID4, a dominant-negative inhibitor of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, up-regulated in MCF7/CEACAM1 cells, down-regulated in breast cancer, and containing a miR-342 binding site, was tested as a potential target of miR-342. The ratio of ID4 to miR-342 increased from 1:2 in MCF7 cells to 30:1 in MCF7/CEACAM1 cells and a miR-342 inhibitor was able to induce 3′-UTR ID4 reporter activity in MCF7 cells. Because 5-methylcytosine methyltransferase DNMT1 is also a potential target of miR-342, we inhibited miR-342 in MCF7 cells and found DNMT1 was up-regulated with no change in EVL expression, suggesting that miR-342 regulates DNMT1 expression but DNMT1 does not affect the EVL expression in these cells. We conclude that the regulation of lumen formation by miR-342 involves at least two of its known targets, namely ID4 and DNMT1.