MicroRNA-200c (miR-200c) generally acts as a tumor suppressor in multiple cancer types and a promising therapeutic target in tumorigenesis. However, only a few studies have explained the role of miR-200c in the development of osteosarcoma (OS). In this study, we investigated the role of miR-200c in OS progression and identified the regulatory pathway protein NDN involved in inhibiting the occurrence and development of OS. Firstly, we found that miR-200c is downregulated in OS cells and tissues. As well, in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that upregulating miR-200c inhibits the proliferation, invasion, metastasis of Saos-2 cells, promotes the apoptosis of Saos-2 cells and suppresses tumor growth in mice, indicating miR-200c plays a major role in regulating the OS progression. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis showed that an anti-tumor protein, necdin (NDN), might be a potential target by miR-200c. To verify this hypothesis, we measured the expression level of NDN in OS cells and tissues and found NDN is downregulated, suggesting NDN is functional in OS progression. Moreover, we found that the expression levels of NDN and miR-200c in in vivo and in vitro experiments were positively correlated. However, the results of dual-luciferase reporter gene experiment showed miR-200c does not directly act on the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of NDN gene, indicating that NDN might be an important pathway protein which regulates OS progression in the presence of miR-200c. Therefore, miR-200c/NDN could be potential targets for developing effective treatment against OS.
Keywords: Osteosarcoma; invasion; microRNA-200c; migration; necdin; proliferation.