Effects of miRNA-140 on the Growth and Clinical Prognosis of SMMC-7721 Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Line

Abstract

Background. A growing number of studies have suggested that microRNAs exert an essential role in the development and occurrence of multiple tumours and act as crucial regulators in various biological processes. However, the expression and function of miRNA-140 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells are not yet adequately identified and manifested. Methods. The expression of miRNA-140 was determined in HCC tissues and adjacent nontumour tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to explore the correlation between miRNA-140 expression level and the survival rate of patients with HCC. Additionally, overexpression experiments were conducted to investigate the biological role of miRNA-140 in HCC cells. Bioinformatics was used to predict the related target genes and pathways of miRNA-140. Results. QRT-PCR results signified that the expression level of miRNA-140 in HCC was lower than that of adjacent normal tissues ( $P<0.0001$ ). Compared with the control group, the SMMC-7721 HCC cells in the miRNA-140 mimic group had a decrease in proliferation, migration, and invasion ( $P<0.05$ ), whereas those in the miRNA-140 inhibitor group had an increase in proliferation, migration, and invasion ( $P<0.05$ ). Cell cycle arrest occurred in the G0/1 phase. Prognosis analysis showed that the expression level of miRNA-140 was not related to the prognosis of HCC. Furthermore, the Kaplan–Meier test revealed that patients with lower miRNA-140 expression levels in liver cancer tissue had significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS, $P=0.004$ ) and overall survival (OS) times ( $P=0.010$ ) after hepatectomy. Cox regression analysis further indicated that miRNA-140 was an independent risk factor that may affect the DFS ( $P=0.004$ ) and OS times ( $P=0.014$ ) of patients after hepatectomy. Our results suggested that miRNA-140 might be a crucial regulator involved in the HCC progression and is thus considered a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.