MicroRNA-21 promotes endometrial carcinoma proliferation and invasion by targeting PTEN

Endometrial carcinoma is one of the most common gynecological malignant tumors. Recent evidence has demonstrated that miR-21 is involved in the proliferation and invasion of endometrial carcinoma. This study aims to explore the effect of biological behavior of miR-21 on endometrial carcinoma its relationship with PTEN. First, Collected endometrial carcinoma and adjacent non-tumor issues, the relative expression levels of miR-21 and PTEN mRNA were quantitated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Next, endometrial carcinoma cell line Ishikawa were transfected with miR-21 inhibitor. After transfection, real-time PCR was used to detect the expression levels of miR-21. Then, the cells proliferation, the apoptotic rates and the invasion rates were detected by MTT method, flow cytometry, and Transwell assay. The expression levels of p-PTEN and PTEN proteins were detected by western blot. The results showed that miR-21 was significantly up-regulation and PTEN was down-regulation in endometrial carcinoma tissues (P < 0.05). miR-21 inhibitor were successfully transfected into Ishikawa cell. The cell proliferation activity, and the number invasion cells in the miR-21 inhibitor group was obviously lower than the miR-21 NC group and Normal group (P < 0.05). The apoptosis rate in the miR-21 inhibitor group was significantly higher than the miR-21 NC group and Normal group (P < 0.05). The expression levels of p-PTEN in miR-21 inhibitor groups were significantly higher than miR-21 NC group and Normal group (P < 0.05). Therefore, we concluded that miR-21 could promote cell proliferation and invasion ability, and inhibite cell apoptosis in endometrial carcinoma partially by regulating its target gene PTEN on post-transcriptional level. In brief, miR-21 may be a new early diagnosis mark and therapy target in endometrial carcinoma.