Background we intended to explore the functional implication of microRNA-183 (miR-183) in predicting clinical prognosis and regulating cancer proliferation and bufalin sensitivity in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methods In 75 EOC patients, miR-183 expression was examined, by quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR), between paired EOC tumors and adjacent normal tissues, and between tumor samples from patients at early clinical stages and those at advanced clinical stages. The association of serum miR-183 and patients' clinicopathological variables were examined. The overall survival (OS) was estimated by Kaplan-Meier model. And the possibility of miR-183 as a prognostic biomarker for EOC was examined by cox proportional hazard regression model. In EOC cell lines SKOV3 and ES-2 cells, lentiviral transduction was conducted to genetically suppress miR-183. The effect of miR-183 downregulation on EOC in vitro growth, bufalin sensitivity and in vivo tumorigenicity were examined. Results MiR-183 was highly expressed in EOC tumors, as well ass in patients at advanced clinical stages. Serum miR-183 was significantly associated with major clinicopathological variables in EOC patients, such as clinical stage and lymph node metastases. High level of serum miR-183 was associated with poor OS in EOC patients, and proved to be a potential biomarker for EOC. In EOC cell lines, functional assays demonstrated that miR-183 downregulation inhibited cancer proliferation, enhanced bufalin sensitivity and reduced tumorigenicity in vivo. Conclusion MiR-183 may be a prognostic biomarker for EOC, and inhibiting miR-183 may have therapeutic effect to inhibit tumor growth in EOC.
Keywords: Epithelial ovarian cancer; biomarker; bufalin; miR-183; proliferation.