MicroRNA-199b-5p attenuates TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that N-cadherin is a cell adhesion molecule that has critical roles in tumour progression. However, the role of N-cadherin in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains controversial. Methods: This study aims to investigate the expression status of N-cadherin and its molecular mechanisms in HCC. Results: The expression of N-cadherin was markedly overexpressed in HCC tissues and cell lines. We identified that miR-199b-5p binds to the 30-UTR of N-cadherin mRNA, thus decreasing N-cadherin expression in HCC cells. We also found the downregulation of miR-199b-5p in HCC specimens, which was inversely correlated with N-cadherin upregulation, predicted poor clinical outcomes in HCC patients. Next, we determined that miR-199b-5p overexpression promoted cell aggregation, suppressed cell migration and invasion in HCC cells, and inhibited xenografts tumour metastasis in nude mice. Moreover, we demonstrated that miR-199b-5p attenuated TGF-beta 1 induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) -associated traits, while its effects could be partially reversed by N-cadherin restoration. Finally, we examined that N-cadherin downregulation or miR-199b-5p overexpression suppressed TGF-beta 1-induced Akt phosphorylation, and inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway blocked TGF-beta 1-induced N-cadherin overexpression in HCC cells. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that N-Cadherin was markedly overexpressed and miR-199b-5p was significantly downregulated in HCC. MiR-199b-5p exerts inhibitory effects on EMT, and directly targets N-cadherin in HCC, supporting the potential utility of miR-199b-5p as a promising strategy to treat HCC. Also, a positive regulatory loop exists between N-cadherin and Akt signalling represents a novel mechanism of TGF-beta 1-mediated EMT in HCC cells.