Regulatory role of miR-211-5p in hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis by targeting ZEB2

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of cancer and the rapid tumor growth, drug resistance and metastasis are the major problems for HCC therapy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) involve in various cell biological processes in HCC. ZEB2 plays crucial roles in HCC progression. ZEB2 is regulated by some identified miRNAs, but there needs to find new miRNAs regulating ZEB2 expression for better understanding the molecular mechanism of HCC. In the present study, ZEB2 was identified as a direct target of miR-211-5p, which was a potential oncogene in cancer. We found that miR-211-5p levels in HCC tissues were lower than the compared normal tissues. ZEB2 expression was higher in HCC tissues and was negatively related to miR-211-5p levels. Overexpression of miR-211-5p in human HCC cell lines (HepG2 and 7721) caused the delay of cell proliferation, apoptosis and drug sensitivity. Summarily, our study demonstrates that miR-211-5p may play a suppressing role in HCC by inhibiting ZEB2 expression.

It was found that ZEB2 was a target gene of miR-211-5p. MiR-211-5p expression levels were lower in HCC tissues and cells. It was also found that miR-211-5p expression was negatively correlated to ZEB2 expression in HCC tissues. MiR-211-5p could decrease cell proliferation and metastasis by inhibiting ZEB2 expression in HCC cells. The study elucidates that low miR-211-5p in HCC promotes HCC cell metastasis by targeting ZEB2.86