MicroRNA-143 shows tumor suppressive effects through inhibition of oncogenic K-Ras in pituitary tumor

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules, about 21-25 nucleotides in length. Accumulating evidence demonstrated that dysregulation or dysfunction of miRNAs are involved in various diseases, including cancer. MiR-143, recently has been reported to function as an important tumor suppressor in prostate cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and other kinds of cancers, but rarely systematically studied in pituitary tumor. In the present study, we firstly found that miR-143 was significantly down-regulated in pituitary tumor tissues and cell lines (GH3 and MMQ). Then, subsequent studies revealed that miR-143 inhibits cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis in both GH3 and MMQ cells. In addition, K-Ras, one of the most important oncogenes involved in many kinds of cancers, was found to be suppressed by miR-143 in pituitary tumor. Furthermore, overexpression of K-Ras greatly reversed the suppressive effect of miR-143 on pituitary tumor cells. In summary, our study demonstrated that miR-143 functions as a tumor suppressor and directly targets K-Ras in human pituitary tumor.