MicroRNA-25 promotes cell migration and invasion in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) as a species of small non coding single stranded RNA of about 21–25 nucleotides have important roles in the development of different cancers. In present study, we found that the expression of miR-25 was up-regulated in 60 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues compared with matched adjacent non-cancer tissues. Moreover, we demonstrated that the up-regulation of miR-25 was significantly correlated with the status of lymph node metastasis and TNM (Tumor, Node and Metastasis) stage. Furthermore, over-expression of miR-25 markedly promoted migration and invasion of ESCC cells. On the contrary, down-regulation of miR-25 inhibited the migration and invasion of cells. E-cadherin(CDH1) is a very important tumor metastasis suppressor. We further identified that miR-25 directly targeted CDH1 3′-untranslated region (3′UTR) and repressed the expression of CDH1. These results, for the first time, demonstrate that miR-25 promotes ESCC cell migration and invasion by suppressing CDH1 expression.

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► MiR-25 is frequently up-regulated in ESCC tissues.
► Overexpression of miR-25 markedly promotes migration and invasion of ESCC cells.
► MiR-25 promotes cell migration and invasion by suppressing CDH1 expression.