Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 7, 2017; 23(45): 7965-7977
Published online Dec 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i45.7965
Down-regulation of miR-30a-3p/5p promotes esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell proliferation by activating the Wnt signaling pathway
Bo Qi, Yan Wang, Zhi-Jun Chen, Xiang-Nan Li, Yu Qi, Yang Yang, Guang-Hui Cui, Hai-Zhou Guo, Wei-Hao Li, Song Zhao
Bo Qi, Xiang-Nan Li, Yu Qi, Yang Yang, Guang-Hui Cui, Hai-Zhou Guo, Wei-Hao Li, Song Zhao, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Bo Qi, Zhi-Jun Chen, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Weihui 453100, Henan Province, China
Yan Wang, Periodicals Publishing House, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Qi B and Zhao S contributed to the conception and design of the study; Chen ZJ, Li XN, Qi Y, Yang Y and Cui GH provided the animals and collected and managed the patients; Wang Y, Guo HZ, and Li WH performed statistical analysis and computational analysis; Qi B, Wang Y, and Zhao S wrote, reviewed, and made critical revision of the manuscript.
Supported by the Youth Fund of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University (Type A-4).
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Xinxiang Medical University Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Xinxiang Medical University (IACUC protocol number: 2015033).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: Participants gave informed consent for data sharing. No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Song Zhao, PhD, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1, Jianshe East Road, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China. zhaosong@zzu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-373-66964536 Fax: +86-373-66970906
Received: August 9, 2017
Peer-review started: August 10, 2017
First decision: September 10, 2017
Revised: September 26, 2017
Accepted: October 26, 2017
Article in press: October 26, 2017
Published online: December 7, 2017
Processing time: 116 Days and 18.7 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To investigate the potential role of microRNA-30a (miR-30a) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

METHODS

Expression of miR-30a-3p/5p was analyzed using microarray data and fresh ESCC tissue samples. Both in vitro and in vivo assays were used to investigate the effects of miR-30a-3p/5p on ESCC cell proliferation. Furthermore, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis was performed to explore underlying mechanisms involved in ESCC, and then, assays were carried out to verify the potential molecular mechanism of miR-30a in ESCC.

RESULTS

Low expression of miR-30a-3p/5p was closely associated with advanced ESCC progression and poor prognosis of patients with ESCC. Knock-down of miR-30a-3p/5p promoted ESCC cell proliferation. Increased miR-30a-3p/5p expression inhibited the Wnt signaling pathway by targeting Wnt2 and Fzd2.

CONCLUSION

Down-regulation of miR-30a-3p/5p promotes ESCC cell proliferation by activating the Wnt signaling pathway through inhibition of Wnt2 and Fzd2.

Keywords: miR-30a-3p/5p; Proliferation; Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; Wnt signaling pathway; Wnt2; Fzd2

Core tip: In this work, we found that low expression of miR-30a-3p/5p was closely associated with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) progression and poor prognosis of patients with ESCC. Down-regulation of miR-30a-3p/5p suppressed ESCC cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, miR-30a-3p and miR-30a-5p could inhibit the activity of the Wnt signaling pathway by targeting the 3’ untranslated regions of Wnt2 and Fzd2, respectively. This study provided further evidence suggesting that miR-30a-3p/5p are diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for ESCC, as miR-30a-3p/5p participate in the activation of the Wnt signaling pathway and subsequently, the regulation of ESCC cell proliferation.