Highly expressed microRNA-124 inhibits migration and promotes apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells by degrading PDCD6.

PURPOSE:To investigate whether microRNA (miR)-124 could affect the proliferation, migration and apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells and participate in the occurrence of esophageal cancer through regulating PDCD6 expression. METHODS:The expression of miR-124 in cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of esophageal cancer patients were detected by quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Esophageal cancer cells TE-1 and SKYE30 were cultured. The effects of miR-124 on tumor size and metastasis were analyzed. The functions of miR-124 in cell proliferation, migration and apoptosis were detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), transwell and flow cytometry, respectively. Rescue experiments were performed to assess whether miR-124 could regulate the proliferation, migration and apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells by inhibiting PDCD6 expression. RESULTS:The expression of miR-124 in cancer tissues of esophageal cancer patients were lower than that of the control group. In addition, its expression in patients with stage III-IV esophageal cancer was remarkably lower than that in patients with stage I-II. Based on the level of miR-124, we divided the patients into high and low expression group, and found significant differences in tumor size, tumor metastasis and lymph node metastasis between the two groups. Also, overexpression of miR-124 reduced the proliferation and migration of TE-1 and SKYSE30 cells and increased the apoptosis, and vice versa. Luciferase reporting assay results confirmed that PDCD6 was one of the target genes of miR-124. A further mechanism study demonstrated that overexpression of PDCD6 in TE-1 and SKYSE30 cells could partially reverse the effect of miR-124 on cell apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS:The low expression of miR-124 can promote the proliferation as well as migration of esophageal cancer cells and inhibit cell apoptosis. The mechanism may be that miR-124 can regulate the expression of PDCD6.

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