Purpose: To investigate the role of micro RNA-21 (miR- 21) in human glioma cells and its potential disease-causing mechanism.
Methods: jetPRIME was used to transfect the miR-21- mimics and its negative control into SWOZ2 human glioma cells. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR assay was used to measure differences in the expression of miR-21 in SWOZ2 glioma cells, SWOZ2-miR-21-mimics cells, and control cells. Cell counting kit-8 assay was used to measure the activity of SWOZ2 glioma cells and SWOZ2-miR-21- mimics cells, and Western blot was used to measure PTEN, p-Akt, and P-glycoprotein (P-gp).
Results: The level of miR-21 in SWOZ2-miR-21-mimics cells was significantly higher than in SWOZ2 cells and the negative control group. Compared with SWOZ2 cells, the expression of PTEN protein in SWOZ2-miR-21 cells decreased significantly, and the expression of p-Akt and P-gp protein were significantly increased. Compared with SWOZ2 cells and the negative control group, the proliferation rate of SWOZ2-miR-21-mimics cells was significantly increased (p<0.05).The rate of apoptosis as determined by flow cytometry showed that the number of apoptotic SWOZ2-miR-21- mimics cells decreased significantly (p<0.05). Transwell assay found that the invasive ability of SWOZ2-miR-21-mimics cells increased significantly, suggesting that miR-21 can mediate the biological functions of SWOZ2 cells by inhibiting the expression of PTEN.
Conclusion: miR-21 may regulate the proliferation and apoptosis of human glioma cells by downregulating the expression of the PTEN protein, and miR-21 may represent a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of glioma.