MicroRNA-708 is downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma and suppresses tumor invasion and migration

BackgroundMicroRNA-708 (miR-708) has been identified as one of down-regulated miRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues by Taqman miRNAs array and confirmed quantitatively by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). However, its involvement in HCC remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the roles of miR-708 in carcinogenesis and cancer progression of HCC.Materials and methodsQRT-PCR was performed to detect the expression of miR-708 in 100 pairs of HCC and adjacent non cancerous tissues. Then, its associations with various clinicopathological features of HCC patients were statistically evaluated. After that, we also observed the effects of enforced miR-708 expression on migration and invasion of HCC cells in vitro.ResultOur data confirmed that the expression level of miR-708 in HCC tissues was significantly lower than those in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P = 0.001). In addition, low miR-708 expression was found to be closely correlated with high Edmondson-Steiner grading (P = 0.02) and advanced Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stage (P = 0.01). Furthermore, the enforced expression of miR-708 could suppress the migration and invasion of HCC cell lines in vitro.ConclusionOur findings support that miR-708, which is frequently down-regulated in HCC, may contribute to the aggressive progression of HCC and inhibit HCC cell mobility. Further studies on the identification of its target genes are required to be performed.