MicroRNA-103 regulates the progression in endometrial carcinoma through ZO-1

Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is one of the most common gynecological cancers in many developing countries. Although tremendous advances have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of EC, there is still no adequate biomarker currently available for predicting the prognosis of this cancer. In this study, we found that miR-103 expression was significantly upregulated in EC tissues than their paired non-carcinoma tissues. Overexpression of miR-103 significantly promoted EC cell proliferation, while downregulation of miR-103 significantly suppressed EC cell proliferation. In addition, ZO-1 expression was significantly downregulated in the EC tissues than their paired non-carcinoma tissues. We also found an inverse correlation between ZO-1 and miR-103. Moreover, ZO-1 was validated as the direct target of miR-103. The downregulation of ZO-1 significantly enhanced EC cell proliferation. In conclusion, miR-103 could regulate EC cell proliferation through directly targeting ZO-1. Our results provide a potential development of microRNA-based targeted approaches for the treatment of EC.