The expression of miR-203 is downregulated in lung cancer cells. miR-203 negatively regulates survivin protein expression and inhibits the proliferation and invasion of lung cancer cells.
The restoration of miR-203 in highly metastatic breast cancer cells inhibited tumor cell invasion in vitro and lung metastatic colonization in vivo by repressing SNAI2.
We showed here that overexpression of miR-203 in esophageal cancer cells dramatically increased cell apoptosis and inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion as well as tumor growth and down-regulated miR-21 expression.
In conclusion, the present study demonstrated the clinical significance of miR-203 in gliomas and suggested that miR-203 was able to inhibit the proliferation and invasion of glioma cells, partially at least via suppressing the protein expression of PLD2.
Furthermore, we demonstrate that C/EBPβ LIP mediates epithelial growth factor (EGF)-induced EMT and increases migration and invasion of esophageal cancer cells in a manner that is dependent on miR-203 inactivation.
Mechanistic dissection revealed that miR-203 mediated cell proliferation, adhesion and invasion in vitro, and tumor growth in vivo, as evidenced by reduced RAC1, p-PAK1, and p-MEK1 expression.
The inhibitory effect of miR-203 on the cancer cells is partially mediated by downregulating its target, BANF1, since knockdown of BANF1 also suppresses colony formation, migration and invasion.
Overexpression of miR203 inhibited breast cancer cell growth and invasion, while antisense-mediated inhibition of miR203 enhanced cancer cell growth and invasion.
In addition, the results showed that miR-203 promotes proliferation, migration and invasion in pancreatic cancer cells, whereas the restoration of SIK1 abrogated the regulation of pre-miR‑203-mediated proliferation, migration and invasion.
In contrast, miR-203 was mainly expressed in tumours exhibiting the characteristics associated with a good prognosis, was mainly present in well-differentiated zones, and rarely expressed in the invasion front.