Role of microRNA-133a in epithelial ovarian cancer pathogenesis and progression

It has been demonstrated that microRNA (miR)-133a is downregulated in a number of human malignancies and is closely associated with the progression of tumors. The present study was conducted to investigate the contribution of miR-133a to the initiation and malignant progression of human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was employed to detect the expression of miR-133a in the human EOC OVCAR-3 cell line, normal human ovarian surface epithelial (tsT) cells and 96 tissue samples, including 70 EOC tissues and 26 normal ovarian tissue sections. Additionally, analysis of the correlation between miR-133a levels and clinicopathological characteristics was carried out. The effect of miR-133a on cell viability, apoptosis, invasion and migration was investigated following transfection with miR-133a mimics and negative control small interfering RNA in OVCAR-3 cells. Marked downregulation of miR-133a was observed in the OVCAR-3 cell line and primary tumor samples, and it was found that reduced miR-133a expression significantly correlated with advanced clinical stages, poor histological differentiation and lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, OVCAR-3 cell viability, invasion and migration were significantly inhibited, while cell apoptosis was increased, following transfection of miR-133a mimics. The present study reveals the critical role that miR-133a plays in EOC pathogenesis and development, indicating that it may act as a promising biomarker for predicting EOC progression and as a potential target for gene therapy.