MicroRNA-155-3p promotes hepatocellular carcinoma formation by suppressing FBXW7 expression

Background: micrornas (mirnas) are small non-coding rnas frequently dysregulated in human malignant tumors. in the present study,we analyzed the role mir-155-3p plays in hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc),which has been reported participation in some other types of cancer. methods: qrt-pcr was used to measure the levels of mir-155-3p in hcc specimens and hcc cell lines. overexpression of mir-155-3p and mir-155-3p inhibitor were transfected into hcc cell lines to investigate its role in hcc. colony formation assay and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium (mtt) assays were used to analyses cell proliferation in vitro. in vivo tumor formation assays were performed in balb/c nude mice. luciferase reporter assay was carried out to measure the translation of f-box and wd repeat romain containing 7 (fbxw7). results: we found that mir-155-3p was remarkably upregulated both in hcc tissue and cell lines. overexpression of mir-155-3p enhanced hcc cell proliferation in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. in addition,overexpression of mir-155-3p is correlated with decreased levels fbxw7 mainly through inhibiting the expression of fbxw7. conclusions: our studies suggest that mir-155-3p plays an important role in the pathogenesis of hcc and implicates its potential applications in the treatment of hcc cancer. © 2016 the author(s).