MicroRNA-138 inhibits proliferation of cervical cancer cells by targeting c-Met

OBJECTIVE: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) function as important post-transcriptional regulators involved in a wide range of biological behaviors. MicroRNA-138 (miR-138) has been shown to play a critical role in tumor pathogenesis, the present study aimed to investigate the role of miR-138 in cervical cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: CCK-8 assay was performed to measure the viabilities of cancer cells. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression, respectively. Moreover, the miRNA target genes were validated with luciferase activity assay. RESULTS: In the current study, we found that the expression of miR-138 was significantly down-regulated in cervical cancer tissues compared to the adjacent non-cancer tissues. CCK-8 assay showed that over-expression of miR-138 suppressed the proliferation of four cervical cancer cell lines including HeLa, SiHa, C33A and CaSki. By contrast, down-regulation of miR-138 promoted the growth of cervical cancer cells. In addition, increased expression of miR-138 led to a reduction in c-Met expression, whereas inhibition of miR-138 enhanced c-Met levels in cervical cancer cells. The luciferase reporter assay showed that c-Met was a direct target of miR-138 in cervical cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrated that miR-138 inhibited cervical cancer cells proliferation via c-Met, providing a novel target for the molecular treatment of cervical cancer.