Influence of microRNA-34a on proliferation, invasion and metastasis of HCT116 cells

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of microRNA (miR)-34a expression in the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of colon cancer and its underlying mechanisms. HCT116 cells were cultured in high-sugar Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10% fetal bovine serum and 1000 U/ml penicillin-streptomycin. Following digestion and resuspension, the cells were used for transfection, expression and western blot analysis. HCT116 cells from miR-34a transfection, negative control and blank control groups were seeded into a 96-well plate at a density of 105 cells/ml, and 200 μl complete DMEM was added. The data are presented as the mean ± standard error. A one-way analysis of variance was performed to compare groups. miR-34a-HCT116 cells demonstrated significantly increased expression levels of miR-34a. The proliferation of HCT116 cells with overexpression of miR-34a was significantly inhibited to 0.49±0.11 compared with the blank control group (P<0.001). Compared with the blank control and negative control groups, the protein expression levels of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) were markedly reduced in the miR-34a transfected group. Furthermore, the protein expression levels of Bcl-2-associated X protein were significantly increased and those of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 were markedly reduced in the miR-34a transfected group, MMP-9 to a greater extent. The present study suggested that overexpression of miR-34a may inhibit the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of HCT116 cells.